A Pirate's Life For Me
by Mangaguitar96
Summary: After the death of his father years ago, Gajeel Redfox, the son of one of the most feared pirates to ever sail the Seven Seas, Metalicana Redfox, trained his whole life to become a pirate. Gajeel sets sail on an adventure of his own with the help of his insane new crew. But what happens when a reoccurring nightmare from Gajeel's past comes back to haunt him?
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: This is one of the stories I had in my arson for quite sometime. I was kinda inspired by _BambooGreen_ 's Gajevy pirate story (Of course there's major differences) but I hope everyone will enjoy this! **I DON'T OWN Fairy Tail**

* * *

 **A Pirate's Life for Me**

 **Chapter 1: The Continuous Nightmare**

 _We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot._ A small girl's voice sang in a slow, yet eerie tone.

 _Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho! We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot. Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho!_

A boy saw himself on a simple boat and he was in no control of that boat; the boat was taking him somewhere, an island where the giant rock was a skull. He was just a child and all alone; he really wished his dad was there to comfort him.

 _Yo Ho, Yo Ho! A pirate's life for me._ His feet forced him off the boat and onto the gray sandy beach. He didn't know where he was going; but he had a good idea of where to go.

 _We extort, we pilfer, we filch and sack. Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho! Maraud and embezzle and even hijack._

 _Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho!.._ He found himself in a cave _._ He felt uneasy walking through this place again; then he heard a giggle. He looked behind himself and found a small girl in a white dress staring at him.

"Hello there," the young boy said to the girl "what's your name?" the girl stayed silent and just giggled before she ran off "Where are you going? Come back!" he followed the young girl to where she was heading. He suddenly heard her sing:

 _"We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and up me 'earties, Yo Ho! We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot. Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho!_

 _Yo Ho, Yo Ho! A pirate's life for me._

 _We extort, we pilfer, we filch and sack. Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho! Maraud and embezzle and even hijack._

 _Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho!..."_

He followed the girl until he came across a foul stench; he knew this scent well, _**Death.**_ He kept telling himself not to go into the next room, but his feet forced him to walk into the room.

There, he found the bodies of dead pirates from the Before Time; he's seen bodies before, and these one's especially, he was familliar with them. Suddenly, he noticed one of them move; and the rest, came to life before him. Gajeel did his best to run from the undead but the managed to get a hold of him and pull him down to where they lay; never to be seen again.

* * *

The boy gasped for air when he awoke from his sleep. He touched every part of his tiny human body to check for any sign of those undead hands on him. He was just a child, and he had the same nightmare for the past three months. There was only one person he could consult on his nightmare; his father, The Iron Dragon's Captain Metalicana. He got out of his bed and let his small feet hit the wooden floors of the ship. He walked out of his bedroom which was right next door to his father's and left his room to search for his father.

"Now we know going after this treasure is going to be dangerous." Metalicana told his two men "I have a feeling that maybe we can play it safe."

"We can try." hummed a voice; which the child recognized as Jose, the navigator of the Iron Dragon "But in order to get the treasure of the Red Sea, we're going to have to cross over this area."

"Are you mad?" questioned another voice which was recognized by the boyl to be his uncle; Skiadrum "That's the Forbidden Sea! Anyone who goes there is as good as dead!"

"Skiadrum is right Jose." Metalicana pointed out to Jose "It's practically suicide, barley anyone lives through it. "

"But in order to get The Red Sea Treasure we need to cross through The Forbidden Sea!" Jose protested "It's the only way to get to the treasure!"

"I'm not putting my crew in danger!" Metalicana growled.

"What kind of Pirate are you?! Treasure always comes first!"

"But I'm a Father and a Captain first! I refuse to put the lives of my men and my son in danger!"

"Um Captain," Skiadrum suddenly said "I think we have company." The two other men looked at what Skiadrum pointed at and in the doorway of Metalicana's room, was Metalicana's seven year old son, Gajeel.

"Had that nightmare again, Gajeel?" Metalicana asked with concern, Gajeel nodded.

"It was different this time." Gajeel shyly told his father "I saw a girl." His father raised a studded eyebrow to that claim.

"We'll finish this talk in a bit." Metalicana told his men "I'm going to tuck Gajeel in to bed." he walked over to his young son and picked him up. He then took him to the kitchens to get him a glass of warm milk. After Gajeel drank his milk and told his dad about the dream, Metalicana picked his beloved son up and took him back to the boy's cabin.

* * *

"Why do I keep getting these dreams dad?" Gajeel asked his dad.

"I don't know son." Metalicana sighed while sitting down on Gajeel's bed and had his son in his lap "Some things in life are left unexplained."

"But, I'm only a pirate in training! Why am I getting these nightmares dad? I'm scared."

"Hey hey hey son, remember what I taught you?"

"Mhm."

"What was it?"

"A Pirate should be fearless. If fear takes over him, he should look it in the eye and fight."

"That's my boy. And to help you become even more fearless, I'm giving you something to help." Metalicana then removed something around his neck and place it in his son's hand. It was a dragon pendant, made from pure iron.

"What is it?" Gajeel asked his dad with curious filled eyes.

"My good luck charm." Metalicana smiled.

"I thought your good luck charm was that thing you keep under your sleeve to cheat at poker." Metalicana blushed at that.

"That's a different good luck charm." he replied embarrassed "This one is meant for protection from evil."

"Like the dragon on the front of the ship?"

"Exactly like the dragon on the front of the ship! When I was your age, my father; your Grandfather and I visited a voodoo priestess in The Bogs. She was a good friend of your Grandpa and gave this to him as a form of protection. When the time came, your Grandpa passed it down to me, now I'm passing it down to you." Gajeel's eyes widened.

"B-but dad!" Gajeel said "Don't you still need it? You're the biggest, scariest pirate in the whole seven seas! Don't you need it just in case?"

"No son," Metalicana smiled "it served it's purpose to me, now you need it more. And one day, you can pass it down to your child. Right now, it will protect you from nightmares, but one day, it will save your life." He latched the necklace onto his son and then tucked Gajeel into bed "Get some sleep son, you're going to need it for your sword training tomorrow." he made sure his son was firmly tucked in and gave his son a gentle kiss on the head before leaving his room.

"Gajeel's asleep." Gajeel heard his father say to Skiadrum and Jose.

"Nightmare?" he heard Skiadrum ask about his nephew.

"Yeah, same one all the time. Mister Porla, I need to ask you something."

"Ask away Captain." Gajeel heard Jose say in a sarcastic tone.

"You know every island in The Seven Seas, correct?"

"I would say so..."

"Do you know about any island that's mountain is shaped like a skull and has gray sands?" There was a moment of silence until Gajeel heard Jose speak again:

"From your description, it sounds to me like The Island of Mysteries and Sorrow." Gajeel gasped silently when he heard that.

"What can you tell me about it?" Metalicana asked.

"Not much." Jose replied "Except that it's mostly a myth and apparently changes it's location all the time."

"I heard of this island!" Skiadrum suddenly said "Apparently it's called this for a reason."

"What reasons?" Metalicana asked.

"The second part of it's name; Sorrow, it's called that because the island caused so much sorrow on the people who tried to find it; they go mad. And Mysteries, no one knows what the island looks like. Only rumors are to be depended on for what the island looks like. Also, there's rumors of an amazing treasure that puts every other treasure alive to shame."

"Treasure you say?" Jose said with sudden interest.

"Yeah, like no other." Skiadrum said uncomfortably.

"You said Gajeel's been seeing this island in his dreams correct?"

"Yeah?" Metalicana replied.

"According to the legends of the island, only one person will get a dream of the island and it's locations. It means the island wishes to have them visit it... Did Gajeel notice any of the locations like distinct marks?"

"No, never mentioned it. Do you think if we visit it, it could stop his nightmares permanently?"

"I suppose so!"

"But..." Skiadrum interrupted.

"But what?" Metalicana asked.

"The Island of Mysteries and Sorrow is rumored to be mostly located in The Forbidden Sea."

"So what?" Jose asked "Let's go and get that treasure."

"No." Metalicana replied "I refuse to bring my son there."

"So? He's just a kid; he probably won't even remember being ali-" Gajeel suddenly heard a crash and a bash; he had a hunch his dad pinned Jose to the wall by the throat.

"I _**refuse**_ to put my son in danger." Metalicana growled "If you even _**DARE**_ navigate this ship to The Forbidden Sea, even once, or even 'accidently' steer this ship in that direction. I will make you walk the plank into the border of that sea or _**worse**_."

 _What could be worse than that?_ Gajeel asked himself while snuggling himself under his bed sheets as a method to protect himself.

"I will _**kill you.**_ Even if you lay a hand on my boy." Gajeel slightly gasped and heard his father let Jose go and Jose gasped for air "From now on, I'll be in charge of Gajeel's navigation lessons. I want you nowhere near my son. Understand?" there was silence for the next five minutes before Metalicana said "You're all dismissed for the night." The rest was silent and soon, he heard footsteps which Gajeel knew belonged to Skiadrum and Jose and the slam of his father's cabin door.

"Fucking Bastard." Metalicana grumbled to himself. Gajeel giggled slightly; hearing his dad say a swear was kind of funny. Why? Cause dad was telling the truth. Gajeel snuggled into his warm bed sheets and hearing the sounds of the ocean waves and the smell of the salty sea air as well as the ship's scent, lulled him to sleep without a nightmare for the first time in months.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: Ok, that chapter was only just the beginning and I now want to get a copy of _Sea Of_ _Thieves_... too bad it ain't out for PS4 yet haha. But here we go!

* * *

 **Chapter 2: The Metalicana**

 _So much time had passed since that night and so much has changed, for worse, or maybe better if you can say that. He stopped having nightmares about that damn island after his dad gave him the necklace, it put a lot of relief on him and his father. And as time went on, his nightmares were long forgotten._

 _Gajeel was now an orphan. About two months after the necklace was given to Gajeel, The Iron Dragon hit a terrible storm and managed to scrape against a jagged rock near The Limnocharitaceae Coast. Most of the crew didn't survive that day and neither did Metalicana. The only two who survived that day was Gajeel and Jose and they were floating for dear life on a wooden plank. How the hell either of them managed to survive that day was a miracle._

 _After the Iron Dragon met it's demise, Gajeel and Jose found themselves on a mysterious island, ran by cats. Yes, you read that correctly. Cats. Well, technically speaking, they preferred to be called Exceeds considering they could speak the human language, walk on only two legs and sprout wings to fly. They stayed for a short amount of time and Gajeel even befriended one Exceed named Pantherlily (or Lily for short) but then came the day the Exceeds gave Gajeel and Jose a boat back to civilization. The moment they reached land, Jose threw Gajeel into an orphanage._

 _His first week in that place was a nightmare. The woman who ran it wouldn't allow any form of play time, any money left behind by families went into this woman's pocket. Had a treat? She'd take it for herself! Gajeel also learned she was running a dress business with her sister on the side and forced all the kids in that place to sew all the dresses. Neither kid saw a single gold coin. And what made things worse was if you didn't sew something correctly, you were beaten and starved for the night. Fortunately, Gajeel knew a tad bit about sewing from watching his mom before her passing, therefore he knew what needed to be done and would get a small portion of food that night._

 _He remembered close to a week since he was left there, Gajeel was trying to sleep admits the cries and whimpers of other children, even his own wounds he received would stir him from his slumber. Right when sleep was about to take him over, he heard a_ _ **tap tap tap**_ _. His eyes popped opened and he searched the room before he once again heard_ _ **tap tap tap**_ _. His attention went to the window and there, he found a small black Exceed with tiny white wings, circular like ears, amber eyes and a white muzzle. He recognized him as Pantherlily. Gajeel raced to the window, carefully opened it and made his way to the small bridge like area on the fourth floor of the orphanage._

 _"Lily!" he whispered to the Exceed "What'are ya doing here?!"_

 _"I came here to find you!" Lily replied "I didn't like that Jose guy and I felt I should keep an eye on you if he did something fishy. What is this place?"_

 _"It's an orphanage. It's where kids with no parents go. Place is more like a bad dream if you ask me. I wanna get the hell out as soon as possible. But I can't just leave."_

 _"Why can't you?"_

 _"Cause where would I go? I ain't gotta mom or dad anymore!"_

 _"But, aren't you a pirate?" Lily questioned._

 _"I'm a pirate in training." Gajeel corrected "My dad was training me to become one; but I couldn't finish my lessons because he..." Gajeel couldn't finish that sentence because of the pain it would bring him. Lily knew about Gajeel's situation and understood._

 _"Well, why can't you finish your training yourself? You humans have those things called books. Not only that, why can't you start your own crew now?"_

 _"It's a lot more complicated then that. I need to be worthy of being a captian, and not only that, to buy a ship, it's a lot of money. It took my dad years to save up for his ship."_

 _"But didn't your dad have treasure hidden all over the world?" the moment Lily said that, it hit him. How the hell could Gajeel forget such a thing so suddenly! If he managed to find all of his dad's treasures, he could use it to save up for a ship!_

 _"Gihihihi, Lily yer a genius! You know what? Screw this place! I'm getting outta here! Hang on!" Gajeel quickly raced back into his area of the room and pulled out a small burlap string bag and made sure he had everything, even the necklace his dad left to him. Once he had everything, he made his way to the window where Lily was waiting and Lily helped him escape that night._

* * *

 _"So what do we do now?" Lily asked while flying along side the docks with his new found friend._

 _"We build a boat and find my dad's first treasure." Gajeel explained. He stopped midway and began to dig out of his backpack until he found a bunch of rolled up pieces of paper. He pulled one out and checked it for any damage._

 _"What's that?" Lily asked curiously._

 _"It's one of my dad's maps." Gajeel replied "My dad made a few to remember where his treasures were and this is one of them. When the ship was sinking, dad made me run to the cabin to get his maps so that way he could..." again, Gajeel was silenced by the memory of his father. He suddenly felt a reassuring hand on his shoulder and looked to find Lily smiling at him._

 _"Your dad would've wanted you to take the treasures." he inspirited Gajeel "It will be hard for a while; but you'll be ok one day. Besides, I think he'd love to see your planning to buy your own ship!" Gajeel smiled at his new friend's words and continued walking with him._

 _"Yeah, he would!" he realized "At least it wouldn't end up in the hands of another pirate!"_

 _"Why did your dad bury his treasure all over the place?"_

 _"It's kinda a pirate code thing I think he once said. He said it's to make sure all of his treasure was safe and if he needed extra gold, he knew where to get some."_

 _"So how long do you think this will take you?"_

 _"I think it will take us a few good years to find them all."_

 _"Us?" Lily stopped in mid air at Gajeel's words._

 _"Well, yeah us." Gajeel shrugged "Since you said you wanted to keep an eye on me, I figured you'd want to join in on this."_

 _"Y-you want me to become a pirate like you?" Lily cross-examined._

 _"Well, you don't hafta if you don't wanna. The whole thing will involve a lot of traveling and training, we may have trouble along the way and there would be also a lot of treasure hunting and awesome sights to see."_

 _"Are you kidding me?! Yeah I wanna come along! I figured you'd want to do this alone or something!"_

 _"Nah you kidding me? I'd love to have ya along. Only one I can trust right now." Lily made his way over to Gajeel, landed gently on the ground and deactivated his wings._

 _"From this day on we're a team Lil." Gajeel smirked and grasped Lily's paw in a friendly manner "We're gonna be the greatest pirates to ever walk the Earth and sailed the Seas!"_

* * *

That was eighteen years ago and now Gajeel walked this world and sailed the seas as a man. Lily stayed by his side after all these years and the two have been inseparable since that night. They traveled around and did everything in their power to find Gajeel's father's treasures. They were successful in their endeavors and recently, they found the last one on an island no one ever used unless for marooning people. They decided to keep a good chunk of the gold in a savings account so they wouldn't lug that money all the time. Not only that, Gajeel learned he was to inherit an amount of money just as big that was held in his father's bank account. With that money and the treasure his dad hid, he could afford two ships!

Now here Gajeel and Lily was, sitting at the docks, waiting for a merchant with a promising career as a ship builder to come to them with the ship they paid for. There Gajeel sat, now a tall, muscular, tanned man with multiple face piercings. Three on each side where his eyebrows should be, two on each side of the bridge of his nose, two under his lower lip, five on each ear and four on his forearms. He had long, unruly black hair, piercing red eyes and wore a grayish black opened shirt with studs, studded gloves, ripped-tan pants and a set of black, buckled boots, and a grey bandanna. Lily was sitting next to him with a crescent moon scar on his left eye, a red bandanna on his head with his ears poking out, a white buttoned shirt with green pants and a simple pair of shoes.

"Gajeel," Lily questioned "do you know how long it's going to take to get this merchant to get here?"

"Should be here any minute." Gajeel replied "Fuck, I'm gonna be pissed if he made it off with the gol-"

"Excuse me?" a voice broke Gajeel's train of thought and they soon found a man dressed in merchant clothing "Is one of you Gajeel Redfox?"

"Yeah, me." Gajeel grunted "You the guy?"

"I am." the merchant smiled "Your ship is ready to set sail!"

"About damn time!" roared Gajeel "Sick of being marooned on this fucking isle!" the future captian stomped his way off the dock to the cobblestone street leaving behind a perplexed Lily and merchant to catch up.

"He gets a bit crazy when he isn't sailing." Lily told the merchant.

* * *

They followed the merchant to an area of the docks where a new ship could ship on it's maiden voyage. And there it was, a large wooden ship made from the finest woods, hand stained, and obviously worth a pretty penny. Three masts poke out of the ship, a large hull filled with cannons and cannonballs and supplies. The ship also had a magnificent Captain's quarters, an entire level dedicated to all of he crews and even a sickbay. On the front of the ship was a dragon, carved out of the finest woods and also looked exactly like the dragon on _The Iron Dragon_.

"It's magnificent." Lily muttered.

"It took a while," smiled the merchant "but it was worth it." Gajeel stared at the ship with pure awe, the fine craftsmanship and overall beauty of the ship just caught him in the moment. Had his dad been there, he would've done everything in his power to be the first to steer the ship.

"It's perfect." Gajeel finally spoke "Just like I hoped it would be."

"I'm pleased to hear you love it." smiled the Merchant "Do you have a name planned for it?"

"The Metalicana." the Merchant paled.

"A-after the Pirate Lord?!"

"He was my dad. Hoped he would've lived to see this. Tell any Government guys ya sold a ship to a pirate, we're both dead. Got it?"

"Y-yes! I- I hope you enjoy your new ship!" he fled the docks without another word.

"Alright Lily!" Gajeel smirked "It's time we find our crew!"

"Anywhere we should look?" Lily asked.

"There's an Inn that Pirates frequent." Gajeel explained "My dad used to go all the time for new recruits. C'mon, to The Hargeon Inn!"


	3. Chapter 3

Author's note:Ugh man I feel my creative juices flowing with this story! The party is just beginning folks and I ain't backing down anytime soon! let's rock!

* * *

 **Chapter 3: The Crew**

A few days had passed since The Metalicana was built and both Gajeel and Lily decided to begin their work on finding a crew. Since most of their money was spent on the ship, and the remaining would be for food, Gajeel and Lily had to use paper goods and ink from the old paper-mill that shutdown a while ago. After retrieving the required items, both Gajeel and Lily began to workout their advertisement for crew mates with whatever art skills they could muster up.

Between breaks, sleep, and moments they just didn't feel like it, Gajeel and Lily finally managed to create a a decent advertisement:

 _ **"CREW MATES WANTED:**_

 _ **Looking for those with swordsman skills, knowledge on explosives, navigation skills, folklore, battle tactics, sailing, scouting, cooking and medicine.**_

 _ **If interested, please look for Gajeel Redfox and Pantherlily at Magnolia Inn or at The Metalicana."**_

"Think it's good?" Lily asked with a hint of wonder.

"Not the best," Gajeel confessed "but could get us crew mates quicker than anything. Pirates don't like fancy crap."

They hung the posters around Hargeon Inn and all the local hang outs that all sea rovers loved to frequent. The first two days, no response. Two more days passed and no sign of a reply. It wasn't until day five that a male with pink hair, a white scarf tied as a headband, a ripped black shirt with ripped blue pants, and black sandals made an appearance.

"Hey!" he suddenly called out "This The Metalicana?"

"Yeah?" Gajeel replied "Who's askin?"

"Name's Natsu Dragneel. You're looking for an explosives guy right?"

"Yeah?" Gajeel was keeping his guard up since he wasn't sure if this was someone from the law or someone looking for trouble "You planning to join?"

"Hell yes I am! The fuck's with you?" the man called Natsu replied. Before Gajeel could reply, Lily intervened.

"I'm sorry, my friend is a bit untrustworthy with new people." Lily confessed "Do you mind if we give you a test? We want to see how your skills are."

"Fine I guess." the pink haired pirate ran onto the ship, hopped over all the barrels and began to fill the cannons with too much gunpowder and a cannonball. Natsu then took a match from a book of matches he had on him and lit the cannon's fuse.

"Oi!" Gajeel hollered "Not here! There's still-"

 _ **BOOM!**_

The cannon went off with the largest explosion a cannon could ever make; he obviously put in too much gunpowder.

"THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YE?!" Gajeel hollered "We're still in harbor and that's way too much fucking gunpowder!"

"The hell do ye want! Ye said ye wanted an explosives expert and I'm yer guy!" Natsu growled.

"Yer gonna cost me some coin I swear!"

"What was that rapscallion?!"

"Ye heard me bilge rat!"

"That's enough you two!" roared Pantherlily "Gajeel, so far Natsu is the only one who replied to our advertisement, we can't turn him away! Therefore Natsu, welcome to the crew."

"What?!" quipped Gajeel.

"Alright!" Natsu cheered "And wait, you said I'm the only one who replied?"

"Yes?" riposted Lily.

"Then who's those people outside your ship?" the two life long friends' eyes widened at Natsu's words before they raced to the side of the ship and found a large group of people, waiting outside the ship.

"Looks like our luck turned around."

* * *

A few days passed and soon, the Metalicana had a crew it could be proud of. Well, _almost_ proud of. It was mainly sweaty and mephitic guys who never were in a crew or were kicked out of there past crews. One named Gray has a bad habit of stripping and picking fights with Natsu, another named Elfman had a habit of hollering "manly", Freed was their navigation expert but had a weird obsession with one of their best swordsman Laxus. Several other men joined the crew that were just good as deckhands.

"We're still short quite a bit." Lily commented to Gajeel "We still need a folklore expert, battle tactictioner, a cook, navigator, sailing and medicine specialist."

"Looks like we ain't sailing anytime soon." Gajeel retorted. As he sighed and sat down on a nearby chair, the sound of boots walking on the bridge provided for the ship and soon reaching the main deck.

"Excuse me?" a strong female voice called out "Is the Captain aboard?" Gajeel turned his head and soon came face to face with a group of women. The one leading them was a red haired woman, behind her were two white haired women, one with long hair and her bangs in a pigtail while the other had shorter hair, a little girl with dark blue hair, also a woman with long ocean blue hair. One was a blonde with brown eyes, a brunette with a large bottle of whiskey in her hands that looked close to empty, and then there was one girl who caught Gajeel's eyes the most.

This girl had milky white skin, unruly blue hair, honey brown eyes and was wearing clothing similar to her friends: a vest, skirt with pants, a white top and a pair of pirate boots.

"Hey!" the red head hollered, snapping Gajeel out of his state of mind "Are you the Captain?!"

"Yeah?" Gajeel cross-examined "Who's asking?"

"My name is Erza, and my friends and I wish to join your crew." Gajeel blinked at her words "Or do I have to beat you until you let us."

"What?!" Gajeel freaked "No! I ain't got issues with women joining my crew! I've seen women pirates fight better than guys, Jesus!" a second of silence passed before Gajeel added on "What can ya do?"

"We all have different skills." Erza explained "I'm a swords woman and battle tactioner, Mira and Lisanna are phenomenal cooks, Lucy knows how to read stars so she can do navigation very well, Juvia is great with sailing, Wendy can do medicine, Cana knows a thing or two about explosives and Levy," she pointed to the girl who caught Gajeel's attention "knows quite a lot about folklore and history in our ways of life."

So that was her name: Levy. Had a nice ring to it in Gajeel's opinion; but he wasn't going to let it be known.

"It sounds like you girls are what we need." Lily added on "But can you girls fight? And how well are you with your skills?" Erza gave a malignant smirk.

* * *

The women proved to be quite a handful when it came to showing their skills. Each one proved to be more skilled than the next. Erza got him and Lily seeing the night sky earlier than expected, Mira and Lisanna had made the most amazing food they ever tasted, Juvia sailed the ship passed all their obstacles with no issue, Cana made amazing explosives that scared everyone, Lucy navigated to an island only using the sky, Levy knew more Pirate tales than Gajeel could count and Wendy managed to help a crew member with a recent injury.

All the women had to go through a battle test as well to see how well each woman could hold their own and everyone passed with flying colors. Well, everyone except Levy, who hasn't taken her exam yet. The folklorist decided to take her test last after the rest of her friends did their's. Besides, she wasn't really one for sword fighting. She watched as Pantherlily was soon defeated in the fight against Lucy, who proved her own in the fight.

"Looks like blondie can hold her own eh? Gihihi." Gajeel laughed out loud before clasping Lucy's shoulder "Welcome to the crew!" the entire crew cheered at the site of Lucy now being a part of the Metalicana's crew. Levy cheered her friend on as she joined Erza and the rest of the crew over at bow of the ship.

"Hey! Shrimp!" Gajeel suddenly called out to Levy "You ready for your test?" her eyes bulged out of her skull for a moment before she realized what he said.

"E-excuse me?!" she shrieked "What did you call me?!"

"Shrimp, cause that what ye are! Gihihi."

"I have a name you know." She puffed in an annoyed fashion "And I preferred you used it."

"I like Shrimp better." okay she was going to wreck his behind "C'mon ye little land lubber, show me what'chya got." he drew out two swords and tossed one of them to Levy. She fumbled a bit before she managed to get a firm grasp on the weapon and got into stance. Pantherlily got between the two and raised two white flags.

"Alright," Lily called out "like the ones before, this will be a trial of strength, endurance and wits. This trial will tell whether you truly belong on the Metalicana's crew." he quickly waved both flangs down "Begin!

Gajeel first lunged at Levy with a few quick movements which she managed to dodge and shield most of his attacks. He swooped at her neck but she avoided it with ease and took a low swing at his legs- trying to trip him, but he was a little too well built to fall for that.

"Nice try." he laughed "But I ain't fallin' fer that!" he pendulated his sword again, causing Levy to dodge the attack and then continue to clash her sword with him. People began to move out of their way as their sword fight was going through the entirety of the ship.

Soon, Levy accidentally mistepped and soon found herself at Gajeel's mercy.

"Give up yet short stack?" Gajeel smirked "You haven't even made a single hit on me."

"Oh you don't know what I got planned for you." she smirked before suddenly-

 _ **Wham!**_

Gajeel clenched his knees together and fell to the deck like an oak tree while Levy made her way to the crows nest with a piece of rope she cut, causing the sail to roll down from its place.

She landed on the edge of the crow's nest and began to walk on the edges of the sails to get a better view. She was balancing herself on the sail when-

 _ **Slash!**_

Gajeel made his way up to the ship's crow's nest the same way she did! And this time, he had a look of anger and determination in his eyes. He stepped out of the crows nest and began to balance on the edge of the sails as well.

"Yer gonna regret that!" he howled at her. They crossed their swords again, swinging back and forth and the _clash clash klink_ of the metal swords hit. Gajeel watched as Levy's footing went smoothly across the beam both were balancing on. Everyone watched in awe as this woman took the captain on with no issues what so ever. No one has been able to fight Gajeel his long, and anyone who had was able to defeat him with one swift swipe.

As the battle continued, Levy suddenly lost her footing and found herself falling off the pole. Just when she thought she was going to plummet, she felt someone grab onto her wrist. Levy made her honey-brown eyes look up and she soon found Gajeel holding onto her wrist. He lifted her back up, safely in his arms, grabbed a rope and made his way down with Levy safely in tow, her cheeks almost as red as a tomato.

"T-thanks." Levy blushed before trying to move away from Gajeel, only to realize he wasn't letting go. No, he grabbed her by the scruff of her collar and lifted her up to his eye level instead.

"Hey you scallywag!" she squeaked while flailing her arms "Let me go!"

"Ye really think you're in the position to talk?" he growled. She stopped her flailing and looked him in the eye. She realized right then and there how pissed he really looked and right at that moment; Levy felt fear flooding her veins.

"That was a pretty fucking dirty trick yeh played yeh little wench." he growled "I should kill you right here for that."

"P-please don't!" I'm really sorry!" she began to cry "I-I didn't mean to kick you there-I swear!"

"Don't you lay a hair on her!" Erza hollered from the crowd. The sudden sheething of her sword made people realize she was serious.

"However," Gajeel continued "I gotta admit I was wrong about yeh." Levy suddenly blinked as she felt the air around her change.

"W-what?" she scritched. Gajeel smirked at her.

"I thought ye'd be this little book worm with no combat experience; yeh proved me wrong when you held yer own when yeh slashed yer sword against mine." Gajeel let her down gently and soon Levy felt her feet land softly on the deck. She blinked owlishly again from the shock and was soon snapped out of her little trance when Gajeel extended his hand to her.

"Welcome to the Metalicana."


	4. Chapter 4

Author's note: Here we go! Time for The Metalicana's crew to set sail! ps, no new chapter next friday, I got a con to attend!

* * *

 **Chapter 4: The Maiden Voyage**

The ship's sails were released from their holding place and the anchor was pulled out of harbor. Revealing the insignia of the Metalicana to the world; an iron colored dragon that matched Gajeel's necklace. With a swift push from the currents, the crew and the wind, The Metalicana left harbor for the first time with pure ease, Juvia got behind the wheel of the ship and began to steer the ship away from the harbor and soon, Hargeon was nothing but a small isle in the distance. Levy pulled out a tome she had in her bag for quite sometime, a tome that she carried since she was a small child; a book on pirate legends and fairy tales.

She opened the old, worn tome, sat near the edge of the ship and began to read the contents of the book for the umpteenth time. The scent of the ocean air filled her nostrils with a calming scent and the waves crashing against the Metalicana as it cut through the silky blue waves created a sense of ease for the young female pirate.

"Okay ye landlubbers!" Gajeel suddenly ululated "Listen up! I got a few announcements!" the crew all gathered on the main deck to hear his speech "Now listen here, I ain't one for rules meself; but as long as yer all in this crew, I only got three Codes of Conduct: 1. Don't fuck me over,or yer dead. 2. Don't betray anyone in this crew or yer ass is getting marooned. 3. and most importantly, we're to go no where near The Forbidden Sea. That place is and always will be off limits." no one could argue with those rules for sure.

The Forbidden Sea was a place that had caused the end of many good pirates. Those who did survived either didn't last long, or went insane from the horrors there. It was a place every pirate avoided.

"Also," Pantherlily announced "We would like any suggestions or rumors you've heard so we can begin making money." the crew began to buzz at ideas.

"We could loot some antiques and sell the stuff we get!" Gray suggested.

"What about going after the fabled Treasure of The Grimiore Heart?" offered Lucy.

"Maybe find the Lost Jewel of Captain Mard Geer Tartaros!" Natsu hollered.

Gajeel looked around the gaggle before spotting Levy at the side of the ship, reading away her cares, totally oblivious to what her crew mates were discussing.

"What about ye short stuff?" Gajeel called over to the Lore specialist. No reply, she was too invested in her book "OI YE BOOKWORM! YER CAPTAIN IS SPEAKING TO YEH!" she jolted a bit hearing that one!"

"I-I-I'm sorry!" Levy yipped "What was the question?"

"Yeh got any ideas for our first piracy?" she thought for a second before she remembered something important.

"I heard a rumor recently that a cargo ship owned by the Fiore Cargo Company is on the way to Magnolia Harbor!" she confessed "It's supposed to have a lot of good cargo and rare items from a man-fold of countries! I-I figured if we could raid a few cargo ships while we research locations of treasures." they were all silent hearing her suggestion.

"That's actually not a bad idea." Erza smiled.

"Agreed," Lily added "It gives our crew a chance to make money and a chance to try and find the bigger booty." Gajeel smirked at the added comment.

"Any of ye interested in the small one's idea?" he called out.

" I am!" Natsu hollered.

"As am I." Juvia smiled.

"Here here!" cried a drunken Cana.

"Then it's settled." Gajeel cackled "Let's go commit some piracy!" with his announcement made, The Metalicana's crew cheered at the decision of their captain and began to get to work "Juvia! Head for The Northern Sea!"


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note: Man life's been insane. With Christmas around the corner, a con last weekend,tumblr literally nuking itself, you gotta be able to juggle it all. So news is I'm not going to be using tumblr anymore since they screw you over. I'll be on Wordpress as .blog, I'm also on Twitter as MangaGuitar96 and finally Deviantart as Mangaguitar96. I'll be posting a lot of my works there from now on when it comes to Gajevy stuff (Don't worry, I'm still posting here!)

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Looting**

The Fiore Cargo Company, a trading company famous for gathering rare components from across The Seven Seas. Rare jewels, gold coins, coal, ale, metals, food, you name it they had it. Gajeel sat in his Quarters, staring off into space as he took a swig of an expensive whiskey that Lily got him a few months ago as a present: Barley Town Whiskey. It was the brand name and the exact same brand his father used to drink when he was alive. As he took another swig of the whiskey, he began to remember a moment from his childhood.

* * *

 _Metalicana took a sip of his drink while Gajeel sat on his lap, staring at the map on the table and studying every single piece of the map. He was living with his father for a month at the time and was still learning the ropes of being a pirate. So far training was going smoothly and today, Gajeel was going to learn how to do a perfect raid._

 _"Now son," Metalicana cleared his throat "We have a raid coming up on some cargo ships, so I want to try and teach you how to do a perfect raid. What would you do if you came across a cargo ship?"_

 _Gajeel stared at the miniature modeled ships on the map before coming up with an answer._

 _"Attack right away?" Gajeel thought out loud. Metalicana stared before bursting into laughter_

 _"Gihihihi, more like yer old man than I thought." laughed the Pirate lord "But in a situation like this, you need to sneak up on your enemies."_

 _"Sneak up?"_

 _"Exactly! Pretending you're a harmless ship or one of them is a sure fire way of letting the raid go smoothly! And soon all that loot will belong to you and your crew!"_

 _ **Knock Knock Knock!**_

* * *

The sound of the knocking on door startled Gajeel out of his thoughts.

"Enter." he called out. The door unsealed itself and soon the Lore expert of the Metalicana, Levy McGarden entered the room.

"Um, Captain." Levy spoke up "Some of the crew asked me to come fetch you. We're almost close to the cargo ship."

"Gihihi." Gajeel laughed "Fucking perfect. Just need to change out sails now."

"Change the sails?"

"My old man taught me that trick. Told me it's the best damn way to succeed in a raid."

"Your father spoke like a true Pirate Lord." Levy smiled which caused Gajeel's eyes to widen in flabbergast.

"H-how the fuck did ye-"

"You look exactly like Metalicana. Not only that you named your ship after him so it was kind of a huge give away to me." Gajeel stared at her with a blank expression before finally speaking up **.**

"Ain't ye a smart one." He bent down to her eye level and stared right into her eyes, causing Levy to blush "I think I'll ye around for sure. Gihihihii!" her whole face turned bright red.

"A-also there's a dense fog outside Captain!"

"Gajeel."

"W-what?"

"Call me Gajeel. And you said there's a dense fog?"

"Yes?"

"Fucking perfect." he got up from his seat, lifted Levy over his shoulder and left the room to give out orders.

* * *

The cargo ship cut through the ocean like a scissor cutting through silk. A sailor of that cargo ship walked the quarter deck and stared at the foggy skyline. This sailor was exhausted, a night of drinking had gotten to him and given him the worst hangover anyone could feel. All he wanted right now was a tall glass of ale and to just curl up in his cabin. The sailor pulled out a telescope and spotted something in the distance: a ship. It didn't look like any of their's but it had the correct flags. Could it be a newer ship they weren't made aware of? The moment he put the telescope away...

 _ **KABOOM!**_

The ship rattled from the attack, causing the others that were below to come up the deck to see what the commotion was.

 _ **KABOOM!**_

Another strike hit the ship.

"What in the Hell is going on here?!" a man hollered.

"Captain!" the man bellowed "We're under attack by one of our own ships!"

"One of our own? Do they know that we're with them?"

A sailor pulled out another telescope and began to focus on the ship that was nearing towards them. Right then and there, he witnessed the flag for the Fiore Cargo company, turn into that of piracy.

"It's pirates!" he hollered "Pirates! Hoist the sales and let's get out of here!"

The crew followed his recommendation only to be attacked again by the pirates and soon, a large set of harpoons hit the ship and began to reel it in.

Gajeel stood up on a nearby barrel, his long black hair flowed in the breeze as he and his crew prepared for their first attack.

"Crew!" he hollered "ATTACK!" the pirates swung off ropes and onto the cargo ship, landing safely onto the ship and drew out their guns and swords. Erza pulled out a set of dual swords and began to slash and hack at the cargo men, taking a whole amount of the men down.

Natsu grabbed as much gunpowder barrels as he could and filled the cannons with the gunpowder and it the fuses. The moment the fuses met their ends, the cannons exploded and sent three sailors hurling into the ocean. Gray and Juvia teamed up and began to swish and hack against their opponents until they fell to the ground.

Levy began to make her way through the fights to try and make her way to the Cargo hold. Just as she was about to make it to the door, a sword stabbed it's way into the ground in front of her. Levy glanced up to see someone from the ship, glaring down at her.

"Well if it isn't a little pirate." he hissed "You scum came to steal what's rightfully ours. And I think you need to pay!" He pulled his sword out of the ground and swooped it at Levy, only for her to take her own sword and defend herself in the attack. The two fought throughout the deck of the ship with Levy trying her best to not receive any blows from her enemy. Only to win when she gave him a swift kick where it hurts.

Gajeel on the other hand was bringing fear into his enemy's heart and mind. When Gajeel knocked him down, he looked up at the Metalicana's captian with fear in his eyes.

"I-impossible!" the man squawked "Y-you died years ago! Everywhere I went said you died when your ship sunk! D-did you return from Davy Jones' Locker?"

"The f- ya think I'm Metalicana?!" Gajeel quipped "No! I'm his brat ya bildge rat! And Yer gonna remember that the rest of yer life. " Gajeel plunged his sword into a nearby mast which caused the man to nearly wet himself.

"STOP!" he hollered "We surrender! I know better than to mess with pirates! Just take what you want!" The moment the man bellowed those words, the entire crew of the cargo ship dropped their weapons and surrendered.

"Hear that ya stinking drunks!" Gajeel hollered "We won!" the pirates cheered in victory right before they took the crew of the cargo ship and tied them to the Main Mast.

* * *

The Metalicana's crew worked hard together as they took all the cargo they could carry off the ship and onto The Metalicana's Cargo Bay. As Levy carried a barrel of gunpowder onto the ship, she was suddenly stopped by her captain.

"Hold on there!" he smirked "I gotta thank ya fer a moment. It's yer idea that got us this loot. Thanks to yeh we got some good money coming in soon." Levy blushed at Gajeel's words and before she could thank him, she was suddenly made aware he was beginning to help her load the gun powder onto the ship "I ain't gonna let yeh struggle alone. My old man taught me to help my crew and look at things their point of view sometimes. Why he was a great captain." Levy looked at Gajeel in awe before she smiled and helped him load the rest of the gun power onto the ship.

* * *

In a dimly lit room, a man sat in a large chair, writing in a journal with a quill. The small sways of the room were soothing but also annoying at times. Well, of course they can be since he was on a ship. This man was a criminal: A pirate to be exact. He had always been one and will die one. One thing he could say was that since he started off as a navigator years ago,he made his way to becoming a captain of his own crew and ship. One day, he'll become a Pirate Lord. As this man continued to write in his journal, he suddenly heard the stomping of feet coming closer and closer.

 _ **SLAM!**_

"Captain!" the boatmen hollered "We received a message from Hargeon that a pirate ship had recently left harbor. This ship is said to be new." The Captain looked up without much interest.

"Nothing that can be helped," said the Captain "New Pirate crews form everyday."

"Sir, the Captain is said to look exactly like The Pirate Lord Metalicana!" THAT caught the Captian's attention. A silence spread across the room before he finally spoke up.

"The ship." he muttered "What is the name of the ship?" the boatsmen looked at him before finally breathing out:"The Metalicana." pure silence filled the room right before The Captain spoke up.

"Thank you for reporting this. Now leave my office." he pulled out his gun and pointed it at the boatsmen who immediately took the hint and ran for it. The Captain stood up from where he sat and began to walk his way to his window, staring out into the star-lit night sky on the ocean. The moonlight slowly crept into the window, revealing it to be no one else but Jose Porla.

"So Gajeel." he smirked "We meet again."


	6. Chapter 6

Author's note: Happy New Year everyone! We're moving a long amazingly! I love how this series has been going and I just can't wait to write more of it! Here we go!

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Phantasam**

"Ye managed to "find" an amazing haul!" the old man Yajima praised. After Gajeel and his crew had their first successful raid, they steered The Metalicana to a local isle that had been known as a safe haven for pirates. Yajima, a former Pirate Lord who retired to this isle years ago, opened a small black market shop here to help current day pirates sell items they "picked up along their travels". Gajeel knew Yajmia since he was a boy and knew Yajima was a personal friend of his father. After Metalicana's death, Gajeel kept in touch with Yajima and his friendship with the old man helped him hone his skills as a Pirate.

"I've never seen antiques like this before." Yajima commented as he studied a golden idol of a bird on his counter "That Cargo ship must've carried quite a bit of good cargo!"

"Indeed they did." Pantherlily commented as activated his wings and then gently landed onto the counter "Our crew also managed to find some good supplies for any long journeys we plan in our future, such as food, medicine, an ice box, and cannon balls with gun powder."

"The antique crap we found is things we don't really need." Gajeel added on "Felt it would be best to bring 'em to yeh."

"Well Gajeel I'm truly glad ye did!" Yajima laughed "The antiques ye brought to me are worth quite a bit! All together I can give you both five thousand gold!" the two pirates exchanged glances before smiling.

"Yeh got yerself a deal Yajima." Gajeel cackled before shaking the elder's hand.

"Yer father would've been so proud to see ye with yer own crew. He often boasted about yeh when he and I went for drinks. It was a very sad day the day he died, he was a great man."

Gajeel smiled at Yajima's words, they truly meant a lot to him.

"Thanks." he smiled "He was great dad."

"Ye know his title is still up for grabs," Yajima smiled before handing Gajeel the gold "The Laws changed before he passed so it's become a bit more difficult to earn the title of Pirate Lord these days. If yeh keep this up, it will only be a matter of time before ye yerself earn the title Pirate Lord."

"Maybe one day, but right now I ain't into becoming a fucking Lord. Rather just get somewhere if ye ask me."

"Wise decisions Gajeel. Come again soon!"

* * *

The crew waited in a local tavern on the isle while their captain arrived and slammed the bag of gold onto the table, stunning the crew.

"Time fer pay ye land lubbers!" he hollered to his crew. The crew sounded off after hearing his words and lined up as Gajeel paid each and every member an even amount of the gold.

"Alright I got paid!" Natsu hollered at the top of his lungs.

"Will ye shut the hell up you crazed arson?!" Gray, a ship-hand growled.

"The hell was ye bilge rat?!"

"Ye heard me land lubber!" it was then a brawl broke out between the two and not wanting to be bothered, Gajeel just continued to pay his crew.

When Levy came to the table to receive her pay, Gajeel gently placed several large, gold coins in her hand. But Levy noticed something off; she had a few more coins.

"U-um Captain."Levy whispered hushly "You gave me more than I-"

"It's a bonus." Gajeel replied in a whisper "It was yer idea to begin with. Only fair you get a few more coins." she blinked owlishly before smiling and giving a small "Thank you." before walking away and joining the rest of the party.

"You seem to be a bit fond of Levy." a voice suddenly pointed out. He looked around to find Lily, sipping from his pint and watching the rest of the crew celebrate their first victory.

"Tch, the hell you talkin' about cat?"

"You seem to treat her different from the crew. A bonus? Really Gajeel?"

"So? Just a nice Thank yeh."

"If ye say so Gajeel. If ye say so. Just go and enjoy the par-"

 _ **BAM!**_

A chair hit Gajeel, forcing him to fall back. A moment of silence passed before Gajeel got back up and crushed the chair with brute strength.

"NOW YE LANDLUBBERS ARE DEAD!" he screeched. Gajeel then jumped over the table and made his way to the two fighting pirates and joined their brawl for the rest of the night.

It had been thirty minutes since the celebration ended and Gajeel was in his quarters, counting out the left over gold from the first raid.

"Nine hundred ninety eight, nine hundred ninety nine, one thousand gold." Gajeel breathed after stacking the last coin on to the pile nearby "At this rate we'd have enough for expenses till two months from now. Ghihihi, life's great." Gajeel suddenly let out a large yawn and felt a wave of tiredness loom over him.

"Better hit the hay." he stripped himself out of his clothing until he was completely bare with the exception of the necklace his father gave him years ago. Gajeel then slipped into his bed, feeling the soft sheets against his skin and the warmth of his bed until sleep finally took him over.

* * *

 _ **"We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot. Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho!"**_

 _Gajeel woke up finding himself fully clothed and sitting in a row boat. The boat was resting on still, yet murky water. the air was foggy and visibility was minimal. He rummaged through the boat, trying to find a paddle or something to steer the boat, only to feel the boat reach a sandy shore. He looked up to find an isle with gray sands and a large mountain that took on the appearance of a skull._

 _ **"We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot. Drink up me 'earties, yo ho!"**_

 _He walked to the entrance of the cave and found a nearby skeleton, holding a torch that still was in good shape. Gajeel found some nearby flint rocks and ignited the torch, giving light to the minimal light cave._

 _ **"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for extort, we pilfer, we filch, and up, me 'earties, yo ho!"**_

 _He followed a path that began to seem familiar to him. He knew this path at some point in his life, but where he can't remember right now. As he followed the path, he heard giggling. Gajeel turned his head to find a young girl, probably close to thirteen with long blonde hair in a white gown, smiling at him._

 _"The hell ye here fer brat?" he questioned. No answer. The girl let out another giggle and then ran further down the cave "O-Oi! Where the fuck yeh goin?!" and just like Alice in Wonderland, Gajeel followed his white rabbit._

 _He continuously followed her, turning left and right, going in circles and climbing until he spotted something in the distance: a large pirate ship on a mountainous pile of gold and jewels, it was awe-inspiring. Gajeel began to walk closer so he could try and get a better view when he suddenly lost his footing, and falling into a bottomless pit hearing only these words:_

 _ **"Maraud and embezzle, and even high-jack**_

 _ **Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho**_

 _ **Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me."**_

Gajeel let out a gasp of air and felt beads of sweat cover his body. In his dream-like state he scanned his room until finally calming down, realizing that he was in his quarters. He sat up in his bed and let out an irrate groan. After he let the moment pass an old memory sparked in Gajeel making him realize something: his nightmares had returned.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's note: So for this chapter, I decided I wanted it to follow Levy a little more and get things from her point of view. Here we go!

* * *

 **Chapter 7: The Metalicana's Folklorist**

Levy McGarden has always been a woman of knowledge. May it be something of the unknown or something new, Levy had knowledge of it. She always had a bag with her filled with nothing but books; but one book she had with her all the time was called: _Tales of the Sea: A Book of Pirate Folklore._ It was a gift from her parents when she was a child and something she studied front to back.

Inside the book was a small pocket she made and in the pocket were two small journals she created by hand. Both journals were identical to the naked eye but with a few tiny differences only Levy knew about. One journal had all of Levy's notes and theories on ancient pirate treasures and the folk-lores that were vital and once had enough evidence, she planned to show her Captain. The other journal was loaded with crackpot theories she created and wrote in a dead language so if someone dared tried to steal her journal, they would take the wrong one. The plan was sure as can be full-proof.

The morning after the party, Levy made the decision to go to a local store to pick up more parchment for both journals as they needed new paper soon. Since parchment was cheap on this isle, Levy went a tad bit crazy and got a decent bundle. After the folklorist made her purchase, she quickly made her way back to The Metalicana knowing Juvia will be making preparations to have the ship leave soon for their next adventure.

Just as Levy ran up the ramp onto the ship, Gray had pulled the ship's anchor up, Lucy had the sails set and the ship began to move out of port. Lucy Heartfillia, Levy's best friend and the crew's navigator was sitting on a nearby barrel, eating an orange they had in the food storage before taking the peels and throwing them overboard.

"Ahoy Levy!" she waved "You're done with your shopping trip?"

"It was a small trip Lu-chan." Levy smiled "Just needed some parchment and that was it."

"Parchment? You mean for your journals?"

"Yes!" Levy smiled as she sat down "I think I'm getting somewhere with one of my theories on a folklore and I wanted to get some more parchment for it."

"Wow!" Lucy responded "Any theories you're willing to share?"

"I won't really share them due to the fact another crew could overhear it; but the only thing I can share, is that there's a chance I believe that The Metalicana may actually be close to the location of The Statue of the Stella Kingdom." Lucy almost choked on her own saliva hearing that.

"T-the lost statue of the Stella Kingdom?!" she spat in a hush whisper "How in all the stars did you manage to find it?!"

"I didn't _**find**_ it. " corrected Levy "It's only a theory. I think where our next destination is, it could actually lead us to the statue."

"Have you told the captain yet?"

"No, I wanted to make sure my theory was full-proof first before submitting it to Gajeel-"

" _Gajeel?_ " Levy popped her head up after that.

"Yeah, he asked me to call him that."

 _"Really?"_ Lucy smirked.

"L-Lu-chan," Levy said in an uneasy tone "what are you implying?"

"The Captain likes you!" Levy's face turned completely pink after hearing that.

"W-what?! No way! T-There's no way he'd like me, I-I mean do you think so? I me-" it was then Lucy put two and two together.

"Levy, do you have feelings for the captain?" the Folklorist's whole face turned red.

"N-no! I mean, yeah he's cute, but I-I don't think-"

 _ **Fwoosh!**_

The girls were interrupted when the Captain's Quarters' door slammed opened, revealing Gajeel. He was shirtless today, wearing ragged tan pants, black boots, a red bandanna and gloves with metal decals on it. But there was one thing Levy noticed about Gajeel no one else did: he had dark circles under his eyes, it looked like he didn't sleep well last night.

"Is he ok?" Levy murmured to Lucy.

"What do you mean?" asked Lucy.

"He looks like he didn't sleep well last night, it's like somethings bugging him too."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Notice he's playing with his necklace a bit?" Lucy looked up and noticed that the Captain was indeed playing with his necklace "I think whatever it was, it probably scared him a bit."

"You're right." Lucy confessed "Hey, why don't you go over to him and show him your theory?" Levy looked at her in surprise."

"What?" Levy gulped "Why?"

"You've been considering showing him. Besides, I think it would be a good distraction for him too. You said it yourself, something's bothering him. Maybe this would be a good chance to ease into it?" Levy thought about it for a moment before realizing Lucy had somewhat of a point. She could provide him with a good distraction to whatever is bothering him.

"Aye." Levy breathed "I'll do it." She left her conversation with Lucy and made her way over to Gajeel, who was in a conversation with Lily.

"How bad was it?" Lily questioned his partner.

"Bad Lil," Gajeel sighed "Blimey, I haven't had a nightmare like that since I was a child."

"Do ye think it was caused by stress?"

"Nay. I know what it was, I think I may look to visit the gypsy in Bogs Down sometime."

"Are ye sure? Gajeel, we never visit her unless it's truly serious-"

"I'm certain. If it happens again, I'm going." Lily looked to his right and noticed Levy standing nearby.

"Gajeel, I think our folklorist wants an audience with ye." Lily pointed out. Gajeel looked over to his side and smiled when he saw her.

"Hey Shrimp," he smirked "What ye got?" Levy pulled out her old book, opened the book and revealed the journal with all her theories in it.

"I have some theories on the location of-"

 _ **BOOM!**_

The ship rocked so suddenly, causing the happy atmosphere of the ship to suddenly end.

"Juvia!" Gajeel hollered "What in Davy Jones' locker did we hit?!"

"We hit nothing sir!" she hollered back "Something **_hit us_**!"

 _ **BOOM!**_

The ship was hit again and when everyone landed on the floor, Gajeel landed directly on top of Levy, causing the young Pirate Folk-lorist's heart to beat at a rapid rate.

Gray pulled out a telescope he had with him and looked through it at the crows nest. He searched the sea until finally spotted something: a ship with pirate flags and a weird symbol on it.

"We're under attack!"he hollered "It's another pirate ship, and they're giving chase!"

"Fuck!" Gajeel hollered "Fire up the cannons and attack!" the crew prepared for their attack and began to fire up the cannons and target it their enemy.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Natsu hollered. The cannons fired and made a direct hit on the ship only to see it barely did damage and the ship continued to make it's way to them.

"They're getting faster!" Elfman, a ship handler hollered.

"Furl the ship!" Gajeel ordered "Fire the cannons again, Juvia! Keep sailing, try to lose them!" they followed their captain's orders as they continued to try and avoid said ship. Lily pulled out a telescope and pointed it at the ship coming closer to them when he noticed something.

"Gajeel..." Lily wearied "Ye might want to look at this." Gajeel took the telescope from his partner, peered into it and got a closer look of the ship's flag.

"No fucking way..." he said in a stunned tone "It-it can't be..."

"Gajeel!" Levy breathed "What's wrong? Who's attacking us?!" Gajeel looked at his Folklorist and then breathed out words Levy never expected to hear:"It's The Phantom Lord."


	8. Chapter 8

Author's note: Wonder what's going to happen next? Let's find out!

* * *

 **Chapter 8: A Blast from the Past**

 _ **KA-BOOM!**_

 _ **CRACK-ABOOM!**_

The Metalicana took another hit and the Phantom Lord took another hit as well. Natsu, Gray, Elfman and Jet loaded all the cannons with as much gunpowder and cannon balls they can before igniting the cannons.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" hollered Natsu before all the cannons on the starboard fired at The Phantom Lord.

"Damnit!" Erza raged "We hit them but it's like the damage has no affect on them!" As Erza watched she suddenly was struck with an idea "Hit their sails! It's the best way we can slow them down!"

"Ye heard the lady!" Gajeel hollered "Hit the sails!" the crew did what they were ordered and began to target the sails of The Phantom Lord. Although damage was made to the sails, The Phantom Lord suddenly harpooned The Metalicana and brought it closer to it.

"Shit!" Gray cursed "Captain! They're bringing us in!"

"Fuck!" Gajeel swore. Levy, sensing this situation was going to be bad, dashed and made her way down to the crew deck and hid the book in her chest under her bed. She locked the chest with a gold colored key and hid the key in her pocket. By the time she made it back up, The Phantom Lord was ready to border The Metalicana.

* * *

A large plank made its way across the boats and a small coterie of pirates who looked frightening and too mischievous. As they began to split to different sides, a man in a long purple cloak with a large purple pirate hat walked across the plank onto the Metalicana.

"What horrible craftsmanship." the apparent captain commented. Gajeel's eyes widened in horror, he knew that voice "Well well Gajeel my boy, it has been a very long time." the captain tilted his hat and soon revealed his repugnant face.

"Jose Porla." Gajeel growled.

"So you do remember me." Jose smirked with a Cheshire cat grin "It's been over eighteen years and ye still remember me."

"Considering the fact ye were a piece of shit of a navigator that my dad hired and dump me in a fucking orphanage!"

"Consider it an act of kindness then putting ye on the streets." Gajeel let out a guttural gnarl at Jose and he began to clutch his hand into a fist so tightly, his finger nails digged into his palm and began to bleed.

"What do ye want from us?" Panther Lily, who had transformed into a much larger form questioned the Phantom Lord's captain.

"I just wanted to see what the Son of a Pirate Lord has been up to these past eighteen years." Jose shrugged "We were in the area and we wanted to sail about. I also wanted to show the power of me crew and that we ain't to be trifled with. As well as look over yer crew"

"You deserve to Dance the Hempen's Jig!" hollered Natsu. Jose looked over to The Metalicana's crew.

"So this is the crew huh?" Jose snarled "Bilge rats the load of 'em." he then spotted Levy who was unintentionally hiding behind Gajeel "Well now, you got small one on yer hands. Be a shame if something were to happen to her-"

"If ye fucking dare lay one hand on her or anyone in my crew,"barked Gajeel "Ye'll be down in the deepest pits of Davy Jones's Locker!" the Phantom Lord's crew howled with laughter after that threat.

"So that's how it is. Well, it was nice trying to catch up with ye Gajeel; but me crew and I have business to handle in a nearby town. "

He began to walk on the plank along with his crew when Erza suddenly threw a dagger at Jose, only for a very large man who was blindfolded grab it between his hands.

"Thank you Aria." Jose replied "Gajeel my boy, I believe you should teach yer crew some manners." he soon arrived back on the Phantom Lord, had his crew lift the plank and then had the ship remove the harpoons from the Metalicana "See you on the Seven Seas Gajeel." Gajeel let out an angered growl as he watched The Phantom Lord sail away.

* * *

Several hours later, The Metalicana had dropped anchor at the isle they were at the night before, only this time for repairs. Since the repairs were going to be heavy, the crew had no choice but to stay at the local inn for a few nights. Levy managed to grab her book and place it in her satchel before joining her crew at The Blue Pegasus Inn, the moment she stepped into the highly decorated inn, she felt nothing but pure silence in the air as her crew drank away their sorrows.

"Damn that Jose." Gajeel hissed as he finished another drink "Who the hell does he think he is?!"

"The Bilge rat had grown powerful in the past eighteen years. We don't stand a chance against him in our current state." Lily commented before chewing on a kiwi. He looked up and spotted Levy making her way to them "Ah, Levy. Are ye okay?"

"I'm fine." Levy smiled "Thank you Lily. What about damages?"

"Bastard at the boat shop says it's gonna be a few days." Gajeel grumbled as he took another swig "Just our luck."

"I-I see." replied Levy before she sat down on a nearby chair "Gajeel, what did The Phantom Lord's crew want with you?"

"I knew Jose when I was a lad." Gajeel explained "Me old man hired him as a navigator for The Iron Dragon. He was good; but he started showing..."questionable" behavior."

 _"Questionable?"_

"He started actin' out and try to go against me old man's orders. Literally remember me old man planning to make him walk the fucking plank and maroon him on some deserted isle. Wish he did now that I think about it."

"Jose and Gajeel were the only survivors of The Iron Dragon's sinking." Lily explained further "After they survived, they washed ashore the isle me people live on and when they got a boat off the isle, Jose threw Gajeel into an orphanage the first second he had. Since that day, for the past eighteen years, Jose became a captain of his own crew and has been trying to claim the title of Pirate Lord for himself."

"He ain't doing much of a good job of it either." Gajeel added on "Bastard had been quiet for months. He's been planning something. But thanks to his little firebombing, we're short for awhile."

Levy looked at her captain and felt her heart wretch for some odd reason. She was just as upset as he was over The Metlicana being damaged; but she wished she could do something more. Then, Levy remembered her book on theories.

"Gajeel," Levy suddenly spoke up "there's something I want to show you."


	9. Chapter 9

Author's note: So for next week, I'm going to take a small break so I can focus on the upcoming Gajevy fest as well as multiple projects due early-mid next month. However, I will be releasing a new one-shot I've been working on during my spare time so everyone stays afloat!

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Comfort**

 _Boom!_

Levy dropped her copy of her book of pirate lore onto the table in the best gentle manner she could muster (the book was quite heavy).

"The hell is this?" Gajeel questioned.

"This is my copy of Pirate Lore." Levy explained "Since I am the crew's lorist, I read this book multiple times." she opened the book, revealing a small pocket with the two books and she took out the correct book "This little journal is filled with all my notes and theories on each and every lore found in this book."

Gajeel gently took the journal and his eyes literally bulged out of his skull.

"Holy shit." he muttered under his breath "Shrimp's been fucking busy." Lily walked closer to Gajeel, took a peak into the book and realized all the notes she put in the book.

"This is amazing Levy." Lily complimented "How long has this taken ye?"

"Years." she opined "Years to fill. I still have plenty of theories from stories I heard from people around me and the book itself, along with multiple other books that carry these stories."

"Incredible.." Lily's eyes shined "Look! This one says we're actually not too far from the lost statue of the Stella Kingdom!" Gajeel looked at each and every page steadily and with much concentration before he finally said something.

"Hey, Levy." he spoke out "Ye know anything about The Isle Of Mysteries and Sorrow?" she was silent for a moment before she suddenly dug into her bag and pulled out a large, heavy journal that looked as if it's been written in many times before.

"I didn't have room in the smaller journal." she explained "I've had multiple theories over the legend and possibilities of it's existence. While just about this whole journal is nothing but crackpot theories, the best I can boil down to you is a few things: 1. The Isle is known to apparently send out some form of message that appears in a dream to the one The Isle chooses. 2. People who have had these dreams claim to see an island with a mountian that looks identical to a skull and a girl who leads them to a room with some form of treasure. 3. While the Island itself has been known to change locations at any given time, it's mainly known to stay in The Forbidden Sea."

While Gajeel tried to show he was keeping a cool head, deep down inside he felt nothing but pure, utter shock. This all began to make sense to him, the nightmares, the isle, the girl. It was no mistake; the Isle of Mysteries and Sorrow was calling to him.

"Gajeel," Levy suddenly spoke which made Gajeel come out of his thoughts "Why are you asking? Are you getting these dreams?"

"Just a curiosity question." he lied "I remember my old man and some of his men talking about it when I was a kid." Levy stared at him before replying.

"Ah, ok. Let me know if you need anymore information." she left the table and decided to join a few of the other crew mates at a nearby table.

"I saw that." Lily suddenly commented. Gajeel looked over at his partner with a questioning glare.

"Ye saw what?" he retorted.

"That ye lied." he took a sip of his ale.

"Tch, I didn't lie."

"I've known ye for eight teen years Gajeel. I know when ye lie." Gajeel let out a small grumble from his words "Gajeel, how long have ye had these nightmares?"

"Since I was a lad." Gajeel whispered "They stopped after me old man gave me this." he pointed at his necklace "But..."

"But...?" Lily continued.

"They started coming back. First one was last night."

"Gajeel, don't ye think ye should do something about these nightmares?"

"What's there to do? I got these nightmares, I ain't gonna be a landlubber about it."

"But Gajeel! These dreams are tormenting you and won't stop until you visited the Isle! Don't you think you should do something?"

 _Slam!_

Gajeel slammed down his mug lightly on his table and looked at Lily with a glare.

"I ain't going anywhere near The Forbidden Sea." Gajeel growled "That place ain't nothing but trouble. I heard tales of pirates losing their minds over this legend, let alone their lives for attempting to go near The fucking Forbidden Sea. I ain't putting me crew at that risk because of some fucking nightmares!" he took a few deep breaths before he let out a sigh "I'm going to me room." he got up from the table and began to make his way up the stairs and into his rented room.

"Honestly, nothing but a stubborn pirate." Lily sighed in frustration.

* * *

It was late into the night as Levy slept in her rented room. Her soft breaths filled the air as she slept soundly in the nice warm bed. It was the first time she slept in one since she joined this crew, and while she did miss her hammock, she couldn't say no to a nice warm bed! As she slept a sudden sound ripped through the air:

 _ **Nnnngh!**_

Her eyes popped open hearing those words. She began to rub her eyes from the sleep and pulled out a small match, turned on the small oil lantern near her bed, swiftly flicked the match to light and lit the oil lantern's wick.

She watched as the room began to light up a tiny bit more revealing a wooden style room with a fireplace that had went out about an hour ago, a small desk with a chair to the left side of where Levy was sleeping that was loaded with her books, a quill pen and ink, this room just had the feeling of comforts. But right now, a sound she hasn't heard before had woke her from her sleep. Were they under attack?

 _ **Nnnnghaaah!**_

Was it the floorboards creaking?

 _ **Gaah! S-stop! Where the fuck!**_

No, it sounded like someone struggling. The captain's room is right next to her's could he be in trouble? Gently, Levy let her bare feet leave the bed and reach the warm hardwood floor, grab her oil lamp and she left the room, making her way to Gajeel's room next door. She kept hearing the sounds coming from his room.

 _Knock knock_!

Levy knocked on his door.

"Gajeel," she called out "Gajeel are you ok?"

 _ **"Gaaaah!"**_ that caused Levy to burst the door open and look around aimlessly.

"Gajeel?! Gajeel are you ok?!" She lifted her oil lamp to see her captain sitting upright in his bed, rubbing his face "Gajeel?"

"I'm fine." he swallowed "Just a bad dream." Levy let out a relieved sigh before she noticed something, Gajeel had a look of fear on his face. Subconsciously, Levy began to move closer to her captain before she put the oil lamp onto the nearby nightstand, climbed into bed with him and gave him a hug.

"It's okay." she whispered to him "I know having nightmares aren't the best. Do you want me to stay with you tonight?"

He was surprised at first; but he eventually melted into the hug.

"Yeah," he swallowed a bit hard "You can stay." they were silent for a moment right before Gajeel pulled Levy closer and silently began to weep as the oil lamp grew dim and let the room turn to darkness.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's note: that moment when you are just close to the roof with all kinds of work... Jesus a lot has been going on. I cannot evenn begin to describe what and how much I literally have going on. With deadlines for my projects I'm currently committed to just around the corner, I am literally feeling like downing the bottle of Fireball Whiskey I have in my cabinet. Thank God I do yoga because I seriously need to learn how to work under pressure if I'm going to survive in the working world. Anyway, the song being sun in the beginning is from the third _**Pirates Of The Caribbean**_ film (Please don't sue!) I chose this because I seriously felt this was the best for this scene. Here we go!

* * *

 **Chapter 10: In The Direction The Sails Blow**

Fog. That's all that could be seen on this gray sky morning, nothing but a thick, dense, fog. The sky was dreary and the fog didn't help. The ocean, what was once a beautiful shade of turquoise now turned a murky gray and instead of the waves crashing against the coasts and moving so beautifully, it stood still on this morning. A storm was possibly brewing and it was going to be bad. As the quiet filled the air, a lone pirate guided his lone boat through the still waters.

He was alone, which was somewhat unusual for a pirate. His clothing were very ragged and tribal like tattoos coated his body. He was barefoot and had a gaze that if looks could kill, you would've been six feet under by first glance. With one arm, he took the stick that he found long ago to move his small sail boat through the dense fog. As he moved his boat, he began to sing in a low tune:

 _"The King and his men_

 _stole the queen from her bed,_

 _and bound her in her bones._

 _The seas be ours, and by the powers;_

 _where we will, we'll roam."_

The man continued by humming out the rest of the tune for he had long forgotten some of the lyrics. If he stopped by a harbor again for some reason, maybe he'll request the song to be played by a bard in a tavern. As he continued his journey, something caught his eye; a girl who was standing on the water. The girl was in a white dress with long pale blonde hair, and wore a white dress. She stared at the lone pirate and before he knew it, the girl disappeared with a whisper in his ear: _"Leave this place."_ the man smirked hearing that for he recognized that voice all too well.

"Sad to say to ye, but when it's time I'm coming for that ship." he said out loud "How long has it been since that day passed? Ninety five? Maybe one hundred years? No matter, time stopped holding meaning to me long ago. I'm going to be taking what I want one day. Even if it means I have to kill more people again." he once again took the stick and began to move it through the still waters before singing his low tune again:

 _"The bell has been raised_

 _from its watery grave,_

 _hear its sepulchral tone._

 _A call to all; pay heed the squall,_

 _and turn your sails to home._

 _Yo ho, haul together,_

 _hoist the colors high._

 _Heave ho, thieves and beggars;_

 _never shall we die."_

* * *

The morning sunlight hit Levy's eyes, causing the woman to open her eyes and try to run the sleep out of them. As she rubbed her eyes, Levy decided to let out a yawn before feeling a set of arms wrap around her waist. Spooked, Levy jolted for a moment before looking behind herself and found Gajeel, fast asleep and letting out a few snores. As she stared at her captain, Levy suddenly felt an urge to touch his face.

It was an odd feeling the female pirate had, but a piece of her wanted to adhere to her wishes. Gently, Levy moved her fingertips closer to Gajeel and just when the tips of her fingers brushed against his cheek, Gajeel's eyes popped open. Levy quickly swooped her hand away as Gajeel sat up, not even aware of what Levy attempted to do.

"Ugh God what a night." he grumbled to himself, scratching his scalp and blinking a few times before looking to Levy and remembering the events of last night "Oh hey short stuff. Thanks for last night I guess." she looked at her captain before speaking up.

"Gajeel," she questioned "how long has this been going on?" Gajeel stared at her with a questioning look, these nightmares were a touchy subject to him and he didn't want to tell anyone about it, not even Lily.

"Why the fuck should I tell ye?" he asked.

"Gajeel, you need to talk to someone about this! It looked like your nightmare was worse than you think." She leaned in closer to the pirate which caused him to blush "Gajeel, if you don't solve this things are just going to get worse!" he was silent for a moment before he let out a long sigh, seeing no point in hiding it anymore.

"These dreams have been bugging the shit outta me since I was a lad." he confessed "Just about the same or different sometimes." concern automatically was painted on Levy's face.

"They've been bothering you for that long?" she whispered.

"They stopped for a while; it was recent that they came back." he clutched the dragon pendant on his neck before pointing at it "Me old man gave me this when they just wouldn't go away. It worked for the past several years; but it hasn't been able to protect me from these dreams recently."

"Is the pendant enchanted?" asked Levy.

"Don't know." he shrugged "Grandfather got it from some old hag who lives in a swamp. Pirates used to go to her all the time. Think she might be a witch or some shit, can't remember to be honest, but I know she was someone all pirates had to visit at one point. " hearing Gajeel's words sparked an idea in Levy's mind.

"Gajeel, do you know if this witch is still around?"

"Possibly. Fuck, according to me old man that hag has been around for centuries. Wouldn't be surprised if she's still around today."

"Why don't we pay her a visit?" Levy asked getting up from the bed excitedly "This could end everything once and for all!"

"Don't know if that's a good idea." he confessed.

"Why's that?"

"That old hag has a hatred fer people according to me old man. Woman hates visitors and calls anyone in her hut a bilge rat."

"Gajeel, if she's a witch, she can probably help you with these nightmares! Do you know where she lives?" Gajeel was silent for a moment before a memory sparked in his mind.

"Old man used to say she lived in Boggy Downs." Gajeel remembered "Said that she liked it there because it was less likely to get visitors."

"Then lets head to Boggy Downs!" Levy cheered.

 _Knock Knock!_

"Gajeel!" a voice hollered "I'm coming in!" the door soon opened up and they found Lily walking into the room with a look of surprise on his face.

"Levy!" he spoke out "What're ye doing here?" she looked over to Gajeel with a quick glance before coming up with an excuse, knowing he probably didn't want Lily to know right now.

"I had to ask our captain a question." she lied "It's nothing special." not looking to question it, Lily shrugged.

"I came here to tell ye that our ship is almost repaired." Lily "We'll be on the sea again later in the day." Gajeel nodded before saying something.

"Oi Lil, how far are we from Boggy Downs?" he asked. Lily began to think before answering the question.

"I wouldn't say too far, but also not too close. It would take a day to get there, why?"

"Cause I want to visit the old hag at Boggy Downs."

Lily's eyes widened at Gajeel's words.

"Gajeel, I never expected you to say that!" he exclaimed "You know she's not too big on company and we also agreed we'd go looting today to help with our finances."

"Change of plans." Gajeel shrugged "We're heading to Boggy Downs as soon as the ship's repaired." Lily cocked his brow before sighing.

"I don't know what caused ye to do this; but to Boggy Downs we will head." he walked out of the room without a word.

* * *

Several hours later, The Metalicana was ready to set sail again. Juvia hoisted the sails and the ship left the harbor. The wind blew gently into the sails as Gajeel looked out into the horizons.

"Set course for Boggy Downs!" he hollered out to the ship.

"Aye Captain!" the crew hollered in happiness as the ship sailed on the beautiful blue ocean, unaware of a small boat that recently passed by them.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's note: Not much to say except enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 11: The Witch of Boggy Downs**

A day and a half had passed by after Gajeel's sudden decision to visit Boggy Downs. Boggy Downs was a swamp that was created naturally centuries ago, it was well known in the Pirate community for being an emergency safe haven in case something serious were to happen such as The Order of The King raiding, attempting to capture or capture a crew, all pirates would escape to here for a few weeks. It was considered their most safe haven in the pirate world.

The swamps were large enough for any pirate ship to go through, but no pirate wanted to clean the ships after getting "grandfather's beard" on the masts and swamp goo on the deck so all pirates used their life boats and hid the main ship in a beautiful hidden cove near by. For this trip, only the core members of Gajeel's crew were allowed such as himself, Lily, Levy, Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Wendy, Gray and Juvia.

They traveled down the canal and followed the lanterns that were placed to light the path until they came to a large dock with a small straw hut where the lights were lit. All the boats docked at the base of the docks and climbed the staircase into the hut.

"Now remember," Lily whispered "The witch isn't too fond of guests. So we will have to be extremely cautious to not anger her."

 _Knock Knock Knock!_

Lily knocked on the door gently. No response.

 _Knock Knock Knock!_

Wendy tried to knock and again, no response.

"Let me handle this." Gajeel grumbled before gently pushing Wendy and Lily out of the way.

 _ **BANG BANG BANG!**_

 **"HEY YE DAMN WITCH OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!"**

 _"Gajeel!"_ Levy hissed as the door suddenly swung open and a large vase flew into their direction, causing the group to simultaneously duck and watch as the vase hit a nearby tree.

"What the hell do you pirates want?!" a voice hollered, it was then a woman dressed in a long gown with a long red cape, her paling pink hair held in a bun, pale skin and a piercing glare stared them down.

"A-are you the sorceress of Boggy Downs?" Levy suddenly spoke up.

"Who wants to know?!" hollered the older woman.

"I do ye old hag!" Gajeel replied "I'm Gajeel Redfox, I believe ye knew my grandad and my old man." the Metalicana's captain looked up at the sorceress before her eyes suddenly widened and she let out a small gasp.

"Y-You're Ferrum Redfox's Grandson?"

"Yeah I am! My old man was Metalicana Redfox too!" the old woman looked at the man with surprise, Gajeel not only bore a striking resemblance to his father; but he was also the spitting image of his grandfather.

"Oi! Ye gonna let us in or not?!" the rude pirate captain's words snapped her out of her trance before she noticed a young blue haired woman's hand smack Gajeel's chest.

"Forgive our captain." Levy explained "And we apologize for bothering you, our captain is having some troubles lately and needs your help."

"Trouble?" questioned the witch "What kind of trouble?" the group looked to Gajeel with a questioning look, all except Levy, who already knew.

"Captain Gajeel," Lucy suddenly spoke up "you never said anything about experiencing problems..."

"Agreed." Erza nodded "I would like to know what this is all about." Gajeel looked around the area before finally sighing, they were going to find out eventually.

"Nightmares." he confessed "I've been having some bad nightmares lately." the group was silent before they heard a burst of laughter, it was Natsu.

"PFFFT HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" he howled in a fit out laughter "The metal brain has been having nightmares! Oh my God this is hilarious!"

"Shaddup yeh fucking bildgerat! I ain't happy about this either." Gajeel growled as Natsu chortled in laughter before Gray smacked him in the back of the head.

"Knock it off idiot!" the now pant-less pirate growled "This could be a serious thing! If it's bad enough we're here to see the Sorceress of Boggy Downs, it has to be bad!"

"He's right." Erza commented "I think it's best Captain Gajeel continued to explain all of this inside. I have a very good feeling that these must not be ordinary nightmares." all nodding in agreement, the group made their way into the witch's hut.

* * *

The hut was crowded with multiple objects that held some form of ceremonial value, tokens from previous clients and jars loaded with ingredients for spells. Gajeel and the rest of the group took a seat as the witch began to pace around the pirate.

"Nightmares come in all different forms." the witch explained "In order to know what we're dealing with I need you to tell me what is going on **.** " Gajeel looked around the room before finally speaking up.

"It's always the same." he confessed "Had the same one since I was a kid. I'm on a boat, some girl's singing "A Pirates Life For Me", I land on an island with gray sands and a mountain that looks like a skull, I go in, some little girl with long blonde hair going down a hallway, and I'd fall into a pit before waking up. Latest ones have been different, been seeing a ship with a huge load of treasure." The room was stunned, no one expected it to go like that.

"G-gray sands?" Levy squeaked "A skull mountain?!"

"Gajeel," Lily suddenly spoke up "why didn't you ever tell me this?"

"I forgot all about this until recently." the captain confessed "I thought they stopped when I was a kid but it was recent they came back."

He clutched the dragon pendant that he was wearing around his neck, the pendant he never took off his neck since the night his father gave it to him.

"My old man gave me this one night when my fucking nightmare bugged me. Been protecting me from them but it suddenly stopped."

"That's because the pendant never was protecting you from your dreams!" the witch suddenly spoke. Gajeel looked up in shock at her words.

"The hell you mean it wasn't protecting me?"

"The pendant you're wearing I created many years ago," said the witch "I created it specifically for warding off evil of all sorts but the dream you're having is not a sign of evil; it's a message." a pregnant silence spread across the room at those words.

"A message?" Juvia asked "For what?"

"For The Isle of Mysteries and Sorrow." Levy finished "It's part of the legend. Gajeel, why haven't you told us the isle was calling you?!"

"Oi!" Gajeel eased "This fucking island has been calling me since I was a kid! My old man was planning to visit it to just stop my nightmares; but decided to back out since the fucking island is rumored to be in the Forbidden Sea! I was ignoring them because I was hoping they'd fuck off after a while."

"They _**won't.**_ " Levy deadpanned "The Isle of Mysteries and Sorrow won't stop sending you the messages until the day you finally visit it!" the witch looked to Gajeel before she went into another room, they began to hear clatter and crashing noises before the woman came back in and had a small bottle of white, round pills with a notebook and quill.

"Take these." she ordered "The pills will help make your dream clearer. The notebook is for you to write in every single detail. The dreams you're having aren't ordinary Gajeel. The Isle doesn't send it to any ordinary pirate. You were obviously chosen for a very specific reason. I have heard this legend time and time again, I prepared those pills for the day someone began to have dreams of this isle. If you want my opinion, there's more to it than we're being let on." the group gasped.

"M-more to it than we thought?!" Wendy squeaked.

"What could this all be?!" Lucy asked.

"I don't know myself." the witch sighed "But if you want these nightmares to end, it might be good to get a deeper understanding of them. That's all I can do for you, I'm sorry. Just take one pill before bed and when you have your nightmare, write it down and see if there's a difference in patterns. And keep your pendant on you at all times. If word gets out about Gajeel's nightmare being that of The Isle of Mysteries and Sorrow, every single pirate in the kingdom will be after his head. This conversation never happened as far as we're concerned."

Realizing she was right, Gajeel got up and shook the old sorceress's hand.

"Thanks..." he said trying to get her name.

"Porlyusica." she smiled "I wish you safe travels on your journey Gajeel." the captain smiled at her words before the group made their way back to their life boats and back to the ship, unaware that a sloop sail ship was nearby and watching the ship leave.

* * *

Jose sat in his quarters, drinking a glass of the finest red wine looting could get you, writing in his journal and enjoying the semi dark room. The salty sea air quaffed it's way into the room every now and then and added a relaxing feel to the room.

"Now that we paid Gajeel a visit, I guess it's time to get back to business." he said to himself as he closed his small journal and made his way to a map on the wall of his quarters that had pins tied to each other. They were in multiple random places and papers were skewered everywhere on the walls "Just where are you you stupid Isle?"


	12. Chapter 12

Author's note: Ok we're getting somewhere! Time for some big moments! PS This Chapter is a Lemon!

* * *

 **Chapter 12: Fragments Of The Past**

Nightfall had finally reached and the Metalicana swayed with the currents of the ocean. Gajeel was in his quarters, preparing for a long deserved rest. With a mug of water, Gajeel took one pill and put the vial on his desk. The door to his quarters suddenly knocked and Gajeel looked to the door.

"Enter." he called out before he heard a distinct _click_ and the door opened, revealing Levy in her nightgown.

"Gajeel," she spoke out "is everything ok?"

"Aye." he nodded "Took a pill and we'll see tonight."

"I see," Levy sighed "is there anything I can do to help you?" her cheeks were beginning to turn pink a tad bit at that question. Gajeel scratched the back of his head to that one.

"To be honest, guess ye could stay for the night if ya want. Felt better with you around to be honest." now his cheeks were turning red to that. A pregnant silence fell upon them before Levy smiled at her captain.

"Okay." she smiled, Levy walked over to the other side of Gajeel's bed and watched as he started to remove his shirt, revealing chiseled abs from years of weight lifting, hard work and fighting.

The lorist was awestruck from the sight of his chest. That was until she witnessed him remove his pants and loins, showing his bare bottom and his manhood to Levy.

"G-Gajeel what're you doing?!" she squeaked before covering her eyes. He looked at her before remembering she was in the room.

"Fuck! I forgot ye were here!" he quickly grabbed his loins and slid them back on "Sorry, I normally like to sleep in the nude."

"I-it's fine!" she squeaked in a flustered tone "I'm going to sleep. Have a good night Gajeel." with that said, she quickly went into the bed, pulled the covers over her and turned the other way, not wanting her captain to see her extremely bright red face. Gajeel didn't know what to make of that.

* * *

"Night Levy." he spoke before he too got onto his side of the bed, pulled the covers over his chest and fell asleep.

 _ **"We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot. Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho!"**_

 _Gajeel woke up finding himself fully clothed and sitting in a row boat. The boat was resting on still, yet murky water. the air was foggy and visibility was minimal. He rummaged through the boat, trying to find a paddle or something to steer the boat, only to feel the boat reach a sandy shore. He looked up to find an isle with gray sands and a large mountain that took on the appearance of a skull._

 _ **"We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot. Drink up me 'earties, yo ho!"**_

 _He walked to the entrance of the cave and found a nearby skeleton, holding a torch that still was in good shape. Gajeel found some nearby flint rocks and ignited the torch, giving light to the minimal light cave. He's been through this ringer before and right now, he was rather annoyed it was the same dream._

 _ **"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for extort, we pilfer, we filch, and up, me 'earties, yo ho!"**_

 _He followed a path that began to seem familiar to him. He knew this path and right now, he knew and grew extremely annoyed with. As he followed the path, he heard giggling. Gajeel turned his head to find a young girl, the same girl who had been haunting his dreams for years._

 _"Oi this again." he grunted "Let's get this shit over with." The girl let out another giggle and then ran further down the cave and just like last time, Gajeel followed her._

 _He continuously followed her, turning left and right, going in circles and climbing until he spotted the treasure. Gajeel began to walk closer so he could try and get a better view when he suddenly lost his footing, and falling into a bottomless pit again, expecting to hear the girl's song again and let the dream end. But this time, as he fell in the black hole, he suddenly saw a flash of light._

 _His head spun around the darkness before another flash hit, this time he saw someone: a man. With another flash he saw the man again, this time with the girl who he was chasing after, and they were surrounded by multiple people while their swords were out. The flashes suddenly grew more and more before finally Gajeel saw something different; the man and the girl were both facing each other with a loving and worried look in their eyes._

 _"Mavis," pleaded the man "we need to get out of here! He's coming for us and the ship! He already killed most of our men!"_

 _"I can't leave Zeref!" the girl called Mavis explained "Me crew is dying out there! Their blood is being shed because he wants the Fairy Tail as well as me! We need to stay! "_

 _"Forget the Fairy Tail! Forget the crew!" Zeref hollered "You're more important! If he takes the ship it's one thing; if he gets ye I'll never forgive meself!"_

 _"I can't leave them or this ship! The Fairy Tail is nothing like the stories told! It's far more better than any ship that sailed across the Seven Seas and will be better than any ship that comes years from now!"_

 _"So what do we do?" he asked her with tears in his eyes "Do we just sit here and wait for death at the hands of that bilge rat?!"_

 _"No." Mavis replied sternly "I have a plan." she made her way to a small clearing in the ship and suddenly spoken something that was mute to Gajeel but to Zeref, it caused his eyes to widen in horror. Before Gajeel could learn more , another flash of light past his eyes and he could hear the horrified and upset screams of Zeref calling for Mavis. Everything went to black for Gajeel before he once again heard:_

 _ **"Maraud and embezzle, and even high-jack**_

 _ **Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho**_

 _ **Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me."**_

* * *

Gajeel shot up in his bed, gasping for air and sweating profusely.

"Gajeel!" Levy suddenly spoke up "Are you okay?! What's wrong?!"

"Dream." he panted "Different from the last ones, more fucked up. Jesus those pills supposed to scare me?! The fuck?!" he suddenly began to feel his body shake from fear of the whole thing. Each second he replayed it in his mind, trying to remember details before he felt Levy coming closer to him, pulling him into a hug and causing his shaking body to finally cease shaking, allowing the comfort of the lorist to take over him.

His hand slid up and down Levy's back before Gajeel decided to do something he wanted to do since he met Levy; he lifted her chin up with his hand and kissed her directly on the lips. The lorist was shocked at first, but as the seconds ticked by, Levy felt herself melting into the kiss. As they kissed, Gajeel opened his mouth and slid his tounge across her lips, wanting entry which Levy happily obliged. He pulled her close and soon straddled her on the bed.

He began to assault her neck. Kissing, licking and biting the flesh which caused her body temperature to heat up.

"G-Gajeel!" she gasped out loud as he continued this. As he continued this Levy felt herself losing consciousness until Levy suddenly felt a slight breeze as Gajeel began to slide off her nightgown, leaving her only in her bare chested and in underwear. She tried to cover her bare breast in embarrassment before Gajeel stopped her.

"Yer perfect." he told her "Don't hide yerself." The Metalicana's captain smiled at her before kissing her lips again, making his way down before taking her left nipple into his mouth and sucking on it.

The lorist let out moans and mewls into the air as he rolled the rose bud and licked it in his mouth, creating a sucking motion that added more ecstasy to pump through her veins. As this continued, Levy began to run her hands down his back, causing large scratch marks to form on his back and allowing him to growl out in pleasure. When he moved to the other breast, Levy kissed his cheeks and his neck as he continued this until she found Gajeel removing her panties, leaving her completely bare.

"Yer wet." he whispered huskily "God yer turning me on more and more by the second aren't yeh Lev?" he kissed her lips before making his way down to her womanhood and gave a long lick which made her gasp.

The Metalicana's captain began to divulge in Levy's womanhood, licking and sucking on her clitoris and sliding his tongue into her as she convulsed and moaned into the air. As this continued, Levy began to feel her core tighten like a spring, she felt as if she was surfing on the highest wave in the ocean. Her moans and mewls grew louder as Gajeel continued to pleasure her until she felt herself reach pure ecstasy and released all the built up tension.

"Fuck!" Gajeel hollered out with pure lust "I gotta have ye!" Gajeel began to slide his undergarments of, revealing his large, throbbing manhood. Gajeel kissed Levy with lots of passion and love before sliding into her. Her eyes squeezed a bit tighter from the pain but soon it ended and Levy began to adjust to this feeling before Gajeel gave her a look of wonder, as if to ask her if she is ready. With a simple nod Gajeel began to thrust, at first it was a bit painful but as he proceeded the pain began to turn into pleasure as Gajeel soon began to develop a rhythm.

"A-aah!" Levy mewled "G-Gajeel!"

"S-shit Levy!" he growled huskily. Her nails began to dig deeper into his skin, drawing blood from him and the pain just added to the pleasure Gajeel was feeling from all of this. As Gajeel continued his thrusts, a thought hit him: the fact he had been attracted to Levy since he first saw her and all the little moments they had together. It was then he realized he was in love with his crew's lorist. With this realization in mind Gajeel added more and more thrusts ino his rhythm causing Levy to moan in pleasure before finally both released their juices before finally unraveling and collapsing on the bed.

They spent the first few months afterward lying there, naked and in their own sweat before Gajeel finally pulled out and laid down next to Levy, pulling her closer before she finally was lulled to sleep. As this moment occurred, Gajeel suddenly remembered to grab his quill, ink and book, he quickly wrote in the book the dream he had that night before letting the ink dry, closing the book, putting it on the nightstand and falling asleep.


	13. Chapter 13

Author's note: Well that was some steamy stuff. Even I was blushing a tad bit writing that one! Now let's get to buisness, there is treasure a foot and we want it!

* * *

 **Chapter 13: The Man from The Order of The King**

The Bookstore on the archipelago Caracole Island was a quaint little shop with books to anyone's liking. If you found yourself on the high seas and looking for something to pass the time a book was always required. Since this bookstore was on an isle that was considered a pirate-ran isle, loads of pirates would flock to this store for any subject. Ship repair, constellation research, folklore, even cooking! You named it the store had it.

Of course being a pirate-ran isle, this book's main source of income was from pirates who visit for a few days or if they found a book that needs to be appraised or sold, this store thrived off of it. The owner was an older gentleman, not too old but getting older. He loved this shop that he built from the ground up and planned to pass it down to his son for when the day came he would no longer walk this Earth. The shop's door bell gave it's simple _ding ding!_ when the door opened, signaling to the older man that someone was in his shop.

The old man was in the back of his shop, putting books away and when he put the last book away, he made his way down the ladder to greet his customer. He walked up to the front with a smile on his face and greeted his customer.

"Hello valued customer!" he smiled "Welcome to my shop how are ye-" he cut himself short when he realized who it was; there, standing in front of him with two or three of his dastardly looking crew mates was Captain Jose Porla, skimming through an old tome he randomly chose.

"Ahoy good book keep." smirked Porla before putting the book he found away "Ye have quite a collection of books." the book-keeper paled and became frozen in fear; Captain Porla was someone who was feared in the pirate community and it can be said he wasn't welcomed on Caracole Island but no one said anything out of fear "I would like to ask ye if you have a particular set of books." the book keep snapped out of his state before replying.

"I-I have books." he swallowed "All kinds! What is it you need? Cooking? Boat repair? Legends?-" he was blabbering to find a book quickly so Jose and his men could leave quicker.

"Legends." Jose smirked "I want a book on the Isle of Mysteries and Sorrow, and a book on The Fairy Tail." The old man raced to a bookshelf farther away from Porla, pulled his ladder to a particular area and then climbed it half way to grab the book he's looking for. He raced down and handed Porla a copy of a book on the legend of The Isle of Mysteries and Sorrow.

"This is all I can give you." the old man confessed "I'm sorry but I sold my last copy of The legend of The Fairy Tail."

 _ **"What."**_ Jose growled "You sold your last copy?!" The old man trembled a bit.

"P-Please understand I'm running a business here! The book has been on my shelf for years! I was happy to see it find a good home!"

"Tell me who you sold it to! Do you know how much valuable information is in that very book?!"

"S-Sir! I can't tell you in order to protect my customers! And The Fairy Tail is just an old legend told to children as a bed time story! Thousands of Pirates tried to find it only come back empty han-" he suddenly felt his airway grow tight and his feet dangle off the ground. The big man known as Aria was choking the old man.

"You dare defy me?." Porla growled before sighing "Now my good book keep, I'm feeling kind today. I need this book and every other book shop on the Seven Seas is sold out. Tell me, who bought that book?" Aria tightened his grip on the old man's throat, tighter and tighter before he confessed.

"A-ack!" the old man coughed "A-A girl! A girl with blue hair! I never seen her before in me s-shop! Sh-She was new! I-I never caught the lass's name!" he only told a small portion of the truth of course, he did know the girl who bought it considering she was a frequent customer, but he didn't want her to face this horrid pirate so he did his best to protect her.

Porla looked at the old man with disdain. A girl with blue hair? There's thousands of girls like that all over the Seven Seas! It was a common hair color among people. This was going to be harder than he imagined. He signaled Aria to let the old man go and he tossed a few gold coins to the old man as he gasped for air.

"You gave me some good information if you can call it that." The Phantom Lord's captain sighed "Thank you and have a good day. Porla then left the shop with his crew mates as the old man shivered in fear and broke down into tears, unaware a hooded man witnessed the whole thing.

* * *

The morning light shined through the window on the Metalicana, the salt of the sea air snuck through the small cracks in the window and gave a calming scent to those in the room. Levy's eyes slowly batted open as she slowly stretched in the bed. Gajeel opened his eyes as well and blinked from the morning light. He stretched his limbs before looking to Levy with a smile.

"Morning." He yawned.

"Morning." she smiled before kissing his lips.

"Don't wanna get up."

"We got to." chuckled Levy "We're raiding some cargo ships today. We need the gold in order to survive another month."

"Yeah yer right." Gajeel grumbled "Fucking Porla and his shit personality wrecking my Goddamn ship..." he began to clothe himself when suddenly, he dropped the journal from the nightstand, causing him to grab it and put it back where he left it.

"Gajeel," Levy suddenly asked "Did the pills work?"

"Seems like it." he confessed "there was some differences in the dream."

"Differences how?"

"Saw someone with that girl I always see. A man."

"A man?"

"Yeah." he grumbled "Seemed like something was going on between them. Can't remember what though."

"Well we can figure it out more as time goes on. Hopefully we can get something soon." now fully clothed, Levy made her way to Gajeel and kissed his lips again "Come on, let's get ready for this raid."

* * *

The raid went successfully and the Metalicana's crew got a good amount of cargo to sell and use for the future. When nightfall hit, Gajeel and his crew packed up and removed all the cargo they bought and sold, smiling to himself and decided he would crack open a bottle of mead for tonight.

"Captain Gajeel Redfox?"a voice suddenly broke his thoughts and Gajeel turned to look and found a young man with a white cape and was hooded, obscuring his features.

"Yeah?" he questioned "Who the hell are ye?" the man removed his hood revealing a man with spiked, short blue hair, pale skin and an odd face tattoo. The man also was donning a serious look on his face.

"My name is Jellal Fernendez," he explained "I am with The Order of The King and I need to speak with you immediately." the moment the words Order of The King passed his lips, Erza, Gray and Levy pulled out their swords, ready to go against this man.

"What is it ye want?!" Erza growled.

"We don't take kindly to members of The Order of the King." Gray growled. The Order of The King is an organization created to keep peace and the law firmly in stance in the kingdom. Pirates were wary of them considering they executed a lot of their people and imprisoned them.

"Please understand," Jellal said sternly without a trace of malice "I am not here to cause harm. I wish to only speak with your Captain. I have important information that he needs to hear. "

"Why should we trust you?" Levy questioned.

"Because if you don't, people are going to die!" everyone stood in silence to his words "Are you familiar with Jose Porla?" Gajeel paled at his words, everyone did.

"What about him?" Lily cross-examined, now joining the conversation.

"A few days ago, I witnessed Porla do something pretty horrific. Afterwards I followed him around and..." he stopped himself and sighed "I would feel better to discuss this in private with you and your most trusted members of your crew. I fear if I speak this out loud, a public outcry will occur. May we speak somewhere private?" realizing this could be serious, Gajeel nodded.

* * *

"You witnessed him attack the Book Shop owner on Caracole Island?" Wendy asked with fear in her voice. They were all sitting in Gajeel's study. Gajeel, Levy,Lucy, Lily, Natsu, Gray, Erza, Wendy and Juvia. Jellal was given a glass of wine to help soothe his nerves and everyone listened to him with either mead or water (Wendy's case)

"Yes." Jellal explained "I went to find a book and I witnessed one of his men choke the book seller."

"What was so important he had to do that?" Levy replied, pouring herself some mead.

"He wanted a book- a special book. One he seems to be after pretty seriously."

"What's the book he's after?" Lucy asked sipping her mead.

"The book on _The Legend of The Fairy Tail_." Jellal swallowed. they looked at him with a questioning look.

"The Fairy Tail?" Erza replied "But, that's just a legend."

"I don't think so." Natsu hummed "My old man used to tell me stories about it. Said it was real as real can get."

"It's an old legend but there may be truth to it." Jellal explained "He also got a book on The Isle of Mysteries and Sorrow." Gajeel spat his mead out, causing Jellal to look at him with surprise.

"Does this surprise you?"

"It's not just that." Gajeel wiped his lip "I've been having dreams about that place since I was a lad. Jose was a navigator for me old man, Metalicana when he ruled The Seas. He's been after it since my nightmares started up."

"You're kidding."

"I'm not."

"Gajeel's been trying to find more out about these dreams for a while." Levy explained "We visited someone who was able to help a tad bit."

"And here's the thing." Gajeel spoke up "I had a dream last night and he girl that appears in the legend, she was talking about The Fairy Tail." the air felt like as if it was cut with a knife after hearing that.

"I think it's beginning to make sense." Jellal sighed "I think he may have found a connection between both legends."

"W-what?" Juvia quipped.

"It explains everything. He may have found it and wants to find the Isle now."

"Wait," Erza cross-examined "I want to know why yer here? Why are ye telling us and not yer superiors?"

"Because when I followed him again, I caught him 'speaking' with a blue haired girl and then I witnessed him make a face, it looked as if he remembered something. I also heard him mutter Captain Redfox's name. I think he's after you Captain Redfox." Gajeel paled even more hearing those words.

"Gajeel," Levy snapped him out of his daze "do you really think it's possible The Fairy Tail and The Isle are connected?"

"Only one way to know."Gajeel explained "And that's if we read the story about The Fairy Tail."

Knowing this was her cue, Levy pulled out of her bag a large tome that said _The Legend of The Fairy Tail_ on it. placing it on the table in front of her. Everyone gathered around as Levy took her right hand and turned the book open.


	14. Chapter 14

Author's note: This chapter is mainly going to be a flashback of the past. Not much Gajevy but will be a key factor in the story line. And in a sense I kinda went with a XXXHolic moment in one part and Inuyasha in another. Also major update to my profile on here that I want everyone to see when they can and spread the word please! and I hope everyone enjoys the chapter!

* * *

 **Chapter 14: The Legend Of The Fairy Tail**

 _"Long ago, when Pirates were anew and the world was still growing, there lived a young girl named Mavis. Mavis was a peculiar girl who enjoyed things someone of her status shouldn't enjoy such as playing outside, reading books and the idea of pirates. Being the daughter of a Nobleman, Mavis was someone who needed to help upkeep the laws in the kingdom and not condone breakage of them. While she enjoyed this, Mavis could experience very little in the outside world._

 _She was born with a deliberating illness that forced her to keep a youthful appearance despite growing older but also made her very frail. Her parents had sought out multiple doctors only to hear there was no cure. One day, Mavis's father decided the best thing to do was to take her to see a "special" doctor. This doctor was someone who normally was sought out by pirates, but if given proper reasons, she was willing to take customers on the opposite side of the law. With a quick check up, the witch tied up her long gray hair and looked to the family._

 _"While I cannot do anything about her youth, I can do something about her frailness." she told her family "However, when she is cured of that I need to advise you that something will happen; she will be gifted with sorcery like no other. I cannot take that gift from her since it is something to equal the weight of what is to be taken from her illness." with a swift movement of her staff and a quick spell, a glowing light surrounded Mavis and her frailness was soon cured._

 _"A gift of mine is the ability to see into the future," explained the elder "and I see a future for this girl that will be something bold and adventurous. She will also meet the love of her life one day and that will lead her to a future I cannot see as of right now." since that very day, Mavis's life had changed. She was able to run and play like she dreamt of doing and even would visit the harbors to look out to the sea and watch the pirates as they worked and soon befriended them. With her father's vast library and her friendships with these pirates, Mavis began to learn the ways of pirating and even advanced some of their tactics._

 _At the age of twenty, her parents had died of an unknown illness and Mavis decided to take the fortune she inherited and use some of it to create her first pirate ship: The Fairy Tail. It was no ordinary pirate ship to say the least; with Mavis's magical abilities, her magic seeped into the wood of the ship, giving the ship abilities like no this ship, Mavis managed to create a crew with three pirates she met along the way: Yuri Dreyar, Prect Gaeblog and Warrod Sequen. As time moved their crew grew to an enormous size, but the world focused on the four pirates who were soon called the Fairies of The Sea._

 _One day, during an attempt to take a treasure that was forgotten long ago, Mavis was separated from her crew in the vast jungles. As she tried to walk through the jungles, she heard the sound of voices in the distance, when she finally reached them, she found a clearing with another pirate crew taking camp there. This crew was The Alverez and their Capetian Zeref, while the crew wanted to hold her for ransom, Zeref on the other hand decided to help reunite the woman with her crew. Even though the crew was hesitant, they obliged their captain's orders and soon found the Fairy Tail's crew. And Mavis and Zeref found something more that day._

 _Though no one knows what really happened, witnesses revealed Mavis and Zeref fell in love that day. For months they would leave their ships at a similar harbor and meet in secret. Their love affair was kept secret from their crews. However, there was more to worry than just being found out. Sometime a long the way, Mavis found a marooned pirate named Acnologia. Despite her crew's uneasy feelings about him, Mavis and her crew cared for the pirate. During the time he spent on the ship Acnologia realized the ship was different from most pirate ships and became enamored with returned to a near harbor, the pirate had become smitten with Mavis and soon began to follow her._

 _He learned of Zeref and Mavis's relationship and grew jealous. Acnologia soon rallied a crew of pirates and planned an attack on both Zeref and Mavis's crew. Fearing for the safety of their crews and knowing Acnologia wished to obtain not only Mavis and the Fairy Tail, Mavis and the Fairy Tail's crew escaped to the Forbidden Sea while Zeref's crew followed suit. No one knows what happened after that. Those who did survive however reveal a battle had taken place and their crew mates were still there._

 _For the next one hundred years, many scholars and pirates tried to find what had happened that day and had little to no success. Some believe that the crew is still alive but frozen in time, others believe they were just another set of victims of The Forbidden Sea. No one knows for sure, but the Fairy Tail is still out there and waiting for their next captain and along with it, a treasure that topples other treasures waiting along with The Fairy Tail._

 _This is the Legend of The Fairy Tail. "_

* * *

Levy turned to the last page of the book and revealed several copied photos from long ago. One was that of The Fairy Tail, the other was of Mavis during her days as a Nobleman's daughter. Gajeel's eyes were fixated on Mavis's photo. She was a small woman with very long light blonde hair, green eyes, pale skin and a wings like headdress on her head. No doubt about it, this was the girl who appeared in his dreams.

"That's her!" Gajeel pointed out "I've seen her in my dreams! She's the lass in my dreams!"

"It looks like our theories were correct." Erza sighed "It seems The Fairy Tail is connected to The Isle."

"I wonder what happened that day?" Lucy pondered out loud "What happened that lead to this."

"Beats the hell outta me." replied Natsu "Me old man told me that my great grandfather was a member of that crew. He managed to escape that day and he said that a battle had taken place. Said magic happened that day and that's all he remembered."

"Wait, yer relatives got ties with the Fairy Tail?!" Gajeel screamed.

"To be honest, it's what helped me father get the title of Pirate Lord."

"Pirate Lord?!"

"Gajeel, you didn't know?" Levy questioned "Natsu is the son of Igneel Dragneel, captain of the Fire Dragon. He was a Pirate Lord as well!"

"That's right." Natsu confirmed "Me old man expects me to inherit that title next. He's retired now and living on an isle safe for Pirates, but I write to him weekly."

"Mavis was the one behind the idea of Pirate Lords." Wendy added "I think I heard once she created the title and we've been using them since then."

"If Juvia remembers correctly," Juvia continued "Warrod Sequen escaped that day with Yuri and Prect. He earned the title of Pirate Lord and retired. She doesn't know if he is still alive."

"Prect Gaeblog became captain of The Grimiore Heart and died of an unknown illness years later." Gray explained "Yuri Dreyar I think is related to Laxus Dreyar, one of our explosives guys. No one knows what happened to Acnologia but rumor claims pneumonia claimed him years ago."

"So how are we going to go and find the isle?" Jellal questioned, uncertain about what will happen "If we let Jose get a hold of The Fairy Tail, there's no telling what will happen!" They all sat there and thought about their next move before Wendy thought of something.

"I think our best bet is to see if Warrod Sequen is still alive and ask for his help. And while we look for him Lucy and Levy will have to try and locate the Isle's next location."


	15. Chapter 15

Author's note: Alright this is a short chapter I'm sorry to say, I had a ton on my plate this past week and it got a bit out of hand. Sorry guys! I'll make up for it!

* * *

 **Chapter 15: When War Will Eventually Come Knocking on Your Door**

After the events of that night, Jellal decided to stay with The Metalicana's crew temporarily until this situation was resolved. An hour after their meeting, Gajeel decided to call a crew meeting below deck, when asked why, he would respond that it was for the best his crew knew so if Jose came knocking on his door, they were prepared.

The crew met in the center of the Galley, Gajeel got on top of a crate and began to tell his crew everything he was hiding. From the nightmares, the night he overheard the conversation between Jose, his late uncle Skiadrum and his late father, to learning of the Fairy Tail's connection. The crew was silent.

"So let me get this straight." Laxus spoke up finally "You've been getting the call from the Isle of Mysteries and Sorrow, learned it's connected to The Legendary Fairy Tail?"

"Aye." Levy sighed.

"And you're saying Jose Porla might've learned about the connection and is coming after our captain?" Max cross-examined. The captain and his core members nodded. The crew began to murmur and throw looks of uncertainty, especially at Jellal who they knew belonged to the Order of The King. Knowing it was his best option, Jellal spoke out to the Metalicana's crew.

"Listen to me crew of the Metalicana!" spoke out Jellal "I know you have no reason to trust me considering my loyalty lies with people you're not fond of; but I felt it was right to come to you and warned you. My superior is aware of the situation and he agreed it was for the best. Jose Porla is a dangerous man as you know. He has a bounty on his head for over 5,000,000 jewels dead or alive! If he gets his hands on The Fairy Tail he will be the most unstoppable pirate on the seven seas!"

"What can we do?" asked Jet, the cannon ball expert of the crew "We had our asses handed to us last time!"

"Because we weren't prepared!" Erza retorted with clenched teeth.

"What is coming to us is war." Lily explained "And from what the Captain's dreams has told him, has told us, the crew of the Fairy Tail and the crew of the Alverez is in trouble."

"They have been for over 100 years." Levy continued on "We don't know what really happened that day; but it was something bad. Very very bad. And history will repeat again if we don't help them! Mavis has been calling out to people for centuries only for no one to come to her aid!" the crew grew hesitant at Levy's words, but soon they began to rebel against the idea.

"Hey ye scally-wags." Gajeel spoke up "Do ye remember what they call Mavis?" they all went silent "They call her the Queen of Pirates. The **Queen** OF FUCKING PIRATES! If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't be here right now! We wouldn't be fucking blubbering over this! She's the reason we're all here!"

"But Captain!" hollered Lisanna "What if Jose comes for ye and captures ye? What will we do?!"

"Let the fucking bilge rat try." Gajeel smirked viciously "I dare him." the crew began to murmur before someone finally spoke up.

"I'll stand by the captain!" said Cana "It may be suicide but by God I'll make Porla suffer!"

"I'll join too." Mira called out with a creepy sweet smile on her lips.

"As will I." Laxus added.

"Battles are manly!" hollered Elfman. As people began to join in, they eventually erupted into cheers and soon a celebration on deck. As the night waned the members of the Metalicana's crew began to celebrate late into the sunrise of the next day. When the crew decided to sleep away their night of partying, Levy and Gajeel made it back to his quarters.

"This isn't going to be like anything we dealt with before is it?" Levy questioned her captain.

"I don't think so." Gajeel confessed "This will be a battle of the centuries. Probably will get a song or two after us." Levy stared at Gajeel as he began to undress and soon became bare to her, ready to go to sleep for the day.

"Gajeel." she spoke up.

"Hn?"

"There's something I wanted to tell you."

"What ye got on her mind?" he pondered.

"Well... you see, I don't know if we'll make it out of this situation. And I just wanted to tell you before anything happens that I-" she was stopped with a kiss on her lips. And she automatically melted into the kiss, feeling sparks on her lips as he did this. After what seemed like an eternity, Gajeel broke the kiss and stared

"Don't have to say it." he said after breaking the kiss "I love ye too." she looked at him before smiling and then continuing to kiss him.


	16. Chapter 16

Author's note: Okay, I'm sorry for the delay in the chapter, last week was a bit more than I can chew on so many levels. But here we go! Chapter 16!

* * *

 **Chapter 16: A Deal for the Sake of Others**

A few days had passed since the meeting and the air on the Metalicana had completely changed to that of determination. Everyday, the crew started practicing their combat skills and also began to create new weapons to use for the war that was to come. Since it was important to find the Fairy Tail before Jose, Gajeel asked Levy and Lucy to be heads of the search party for Warrod Sequen.

After his retirement, Warrod became a recluse, granting very few visits and leaving where he lives a mystery. Rumor claimed he did this to prevent Mavis's resting place from being found, other rumors claim he died years ago. Since no one knows anything really about him or his whereabouts, Lucy and Levy were tasked with finding him as well as the next location of the isle.

Otherwise for the Metalicana's crew, they tried to go on about life normally. The crew raided and plundered a few ships to help with their financing and keep them sharp, but also to help with combat. The crew started to show improvement in their combat skills- well, they were always capable of handling themselves, but these past few days had been an improvement for them.

* * *

About a week into their planning, Levy was alone in Gajeel's office, reading multiple books, writing down on parchment with an ink quill, and staring at a map of the seven seas. Gajeel came into his office with two mugs of ale and handed one to Levy who thanked him with a smile on her face while Gajeel sat down and took a sip.

"Any luck?" he questioned.

"Very little." she sighed while leaning back in her chair "So far I'm just taking witness testimonies and rumored areas from the past centuries on the isle popping up. " she pointed at areas of the map where different colored pins appeared. Red and green.

"The red ones show rumored sightings of the Isle while green represents the confirmed sightings. " Levy explained "The rumored sightings may have some promise; but I'm not sure considering they're rumors."

"What about the confirmed ones?" Gajeel asked.

"They're ones that have been officially confirmed by former pirates and pirates who were previously called to the island who either went and never found it, or never answered the call. "

"The hell ye sayin?" Gajeel raised his studded eyebrow.

"I'm not 100% I know the Isle's next location." Levy exasperated "So far, it looks to me the legends of it mainly making an appearance in The Forbidden Sea is true." Gajeel paled at those words.

"Shit." he grumbled "Was hoping not to get there."

"I know, me too. No one wants to visit that place."

"Why couldn't it appear somewhere else?"

"My theory is that the battle partook somewhere near the Forbidden Sea."

"Probably, but fuck why does it have to be called the Forbidden Sea? Why not the Sea of prancing sea horses?" Gajeel groaned before slamming his head on the table, Levy began to rub Gajeel's back in comfort.

"It isn't over yet." she told him "We still have a chance it won't appear in The Forbidden Sea again next time! I just need to figure out when and where, but we can't even give up! If we do, Jose wins!" Gajeel looked to her and realized she was right, he lifted himself up and smiled at her.

"Ever told ye how much I fucking love ye?" he asked her.

"Hmmmm..." she pondered "Not until now." they began to lean in closer and just when their lips were about to touch-

 _ **BAM!**_

"CAPTAIN!" a voice hollered. Levy and Gajeel turned away and found Lucy standing in front of them, panting, sweating and gasping for air "I found him!"

"Found who?" Gajeel questioned.

"Warrod! I know where he is!" they almost jumped out of their skin hearing that.

"Ye do?!" Gajeel questioned "Where?!"

"He lives on a small island near by. A local fisherman delivers fish to him quite frequently and said he lives there with his family! We need to get there as soon as possible!" without hesitation, the three left the room in a rush and made orders to head to the island.

* * *

Gajeel, Lily, Levy, Lucy, Natsu, Gray, Juvia, Wendy, Jellal and Erza soon found themselves standing in front of a beautiful brick manor with two levels, a beautiful shingled room, gold trimming and a lush garden as far as the eye can see, along with servants dressed in suits and dresses with petticoats.

"Wow," Erza said in awe "Incredible."

"It looks like being a pirate really pays off." Jellal confessed, beginning to question his current employment status. A maid made their way over to the group with a smile on their face.

"Hello!" she smiled "Do you have an appointment with the master?"

"Oh!" Levy piped "No, we're pirates as well, and we wanted to ask your Lord a few questions if he's alright with it." she explained. The Maid nodded and gave them a sweet smile.

"The Master should be in his study, I will take you to him." she then curtsied and guided them to Warrod's study.

* * *

An elderly man with thinning hair and an elongated face sat at his desk, writing papers with a quill before he heard a simple _*knock knock*_ and the maid entered.

"Master Warrod." said the maid "You have visitors." the group entered the room and watched as the old man smiled, recognizing them as pirates.

"Ah, pirates." Warrod smiled "It's been so long since I seen some of my own kind. Thank you Mary, you're dismissed." The maid curtsied and left the pirates alone with him "How can I help you?"

"Alright, I aint gonna beat around the fucking bush." Gajeel told Warrod "We're looking for The Fairy Tail." Warrod paled hearing this.

"Gajeel!" Levy hollered "That's not what needs to be said!" she sighed "I'm terribly sorry, my captain can be a bit brash. Yes, we are looking for The Fairy Tail, but not for personal gain. There's another pirate crew after the ship, and this one has bad intentions. Our captain has been receiving dreams about the location of the isle and it's been said you were once part o the crew for The Fairy Tail. I'm truly sorry we barged in to ask something you probably wanted to forget; but please understand we only want to protect the ship and whoever is still there!"

Warrod listened intently before letting out a sigh, his hands shaking slightly.

"You're not the first set of pirates to come in here telling me you're after the Fairy Tail." Warrod explained "But I can say I know you mean no harm. Yes, the stories are true, I was a member of The Fairy Tail. Mavis was a friend of mine." the group gasped "I was there that day. I, along with a few other members managed to make it out alive. What Mavis did that day, I cannot blame her. You'd do a lot for love."

"So, you're saying she did something?" Lucy asked.

"She casted a spell." Warrod explained, tearing up a tiny bit "The spell put everyone into a stasis like state. I, along with Yury, Prect, and a few other lucky crew mates managed to escape that day. I remember being on one of the life boats and watching that island vanish into thin air. I can't bring up the rest of what happened since the memories were so horrific; but I know that the Isle it took place on had magic to call it's own. It may not seem like it, but magic exists."

"What about the isle itself?" asked Natsu "Do you know where it could be next?"

"Sadly no." Warrod sighed "I don't know much about the isle just as much as you, but I remember something important: Prect used to carry a compass with him all the time. On the day we arrived on that isle, he found a very unusual stone. This stone was a natural source on the isle and when he placed it on his compass, it guided him to the isle."

"A stone?" Erza asked.

"Do you know where it is?" questioned Jellal.

"He sold it after the events of that day." Warrod explained "Haven't seen it since."

"Do you remember what it looks like?" cross-examined Wendy. Warrod sat in silence for a moment before remembering.

"It was red, with a few rough edges since it was fresh from the earth and had a blue hue." Warrod recalled. After those words left his lips, Gajeel's eyes widened in shock, as he heard those words, Gajeel remembered something. He remembered one night long ago, walking into his father's study after he had another dream and remembered seeing something on his father's desk: a red stone with a blue hue. He didn't pay much attention to it, only thought it was amaing and his dad only shrugged it off as something for decoration.

"Holy shit." he grumbled to himself. Levy looked at him with a questioning look.

"Gajeel," she asked "Is everything okay?"

"I think I've seen that stone before." the whole room looked at him in surprise.

"Really?!" Juvia asked "Where?!"

"Me Old Man had that stone. Kept it on his desk all the time for decoration, said it was nice looking and he got it off a black market auction."

"So this stone was with yer old man this whole time?!" Gray asked in shock.

"Aye," Gajeel nodded "I remember it now, everyone thought it was worthless trash so when the Iron Dragon began to sink, no one bothered to grab it. I think it's still on the Iron Dragon's wreckage to this day!"

 _"Quite odd of all people, Metalicana Redfox would have the one thing that would've helped end your nightmares Gajeel my boy!"_ Gajeel paled hearing those words before he looked to a nearby corner and found coming out of the shadows Jose Porla.

"Porla!" Lucy growled "So this was a trap this whole time?!"

"Indeed it was." Jose clapped "And my friend here played his part. Well done Warrod! You did well!"

"I didn't ask for this." Warrod growled through gritted teeth "Just give me back my granddaughter like you claim you would!"

"In good time." Jose waved "Now, I need Gajeel to come with me."

"Why the flying fuck would I go with you?!" Gajeel hissed.

"Because we have you surrounded right now." As he said that, Jose's men popped out of various places, their weapons drawn and surrounding Gajeel and his friends.

"Now, are you going to come peacefully or no?"

"Kiss my salty sea ass Porla!" Gajeel hollered.

"I'll take that as no then." Jose sighed "Very well, kill them all but leave Redfox alive." As soon as those words were said, Gajeel and his friends drew out their weapons and began to fight back. They slashed and hacked against their opponents with might and all their strength. They flourished and swung there swords at each other, Gajeel and his friends dodged the attacks and so did Porla's crew. They continued their fight until Levy realized something:

"Gajeel!" she hollered "We need to get back to the ship immediately! If Jose's here with some of his crew, the rest can't be too far off! We need to escape before we're in deep trouble!"

"Ye got a point there!" Gajeel hollered while fighting one of Porla's men "Oi! Salamander!"

"Ye don't need to tell me twice!" Natsu replied while taking a guy down, grabbing a smoke bomb, lighting it up and throwing it on the ground. The smoke bomb went off with a big _**Poof!**_ and soon the room became filled with smoke. Porla and his men coughed and hacked at the sudden burst of smoke and when it dissipated, Gajeel, his friends and Warrod were gone.

"They're getting away!" Porla yelled, his face red with anger "After them!"

* * *

"Gajeel, his crew and Warrod all raced past the guards and every servant on the island, managing to somehow miraculously avoid The Phantom Lord's crew. The Metalicana was in sight and soon, Gajeel, Warrod and his friends all made it back on safely.

"Hoist the sails! Pull the anchor! We need to get the fuck off this island!" he screamed. With that said, the crew managed to do just that and escaped the island safely.


	17. Chapter 17

Author's note: Okay I kinda threw a tiny curve ball in the last chapter, but this chapter is one I've been wanting to do for a while now! I really wanted to explore Gajeel's background with his father and now's the time! Here we go!

* * *

 **Chapter 17: The Wreckage of The Iron Dragon**

 _It was a bright and sunny morning at Caracole Isle. The Iron Dragon was sitting proudly in the isle's harbor, ready to set sail after purchasing supplies and selling goods from their journeys. Metalicana Redfox, the captain of the Iron Dragon stood tall and proud as he watched his crew prepare the ship to leave port and go on their next adventure for the week. His long, unruly black hair moved in the breeze and he smiled at the ocean in front of him. Today was going to be another amazing adventure! After all, e heard rumors of a treasure being buried on a near isle. As he watched the sails being prepared to be hoisted, Skiadrum, Metalicana's younger brother and first mate walked over to him with a look of uncertainty._

 _"Um, Captain." he spoke up._

 _"What is it ye want?" grumbled Metalicana._

 _"There's a woman and some members from the government standing near our ship wanting to talk with you." Skiadrum explained. Metalicana groaned, they better not be here for troublesome reasons._

 _"What do they want?" Metalicana asked his brother._

 _"They won't say, only if you'd speak with them."_

 _"Tch. Fucking pests, fine. I'll see what they want." he grumbled a few curse words before making his way off the ship and to a woman with silver colored hair, green eyes and a simple tavern gown on, next to two sets of guards._

 _"Are you Metalicana Redfox?" asked the woman._

 _"Who's askin?" he replied._

 _"My name is Merabeth Stewards and I am with the Child division of the government. I'm here to deliver to you your son."_

 _"Me what?"_

 _After he said those words, a young six year old boy with short, spiked black hair, tan skin and piercing red eyes stood before the pirate captain, shocking both Metalicana and Skiadrum at how much of a resemblance he bore to the Iron Dragon's Captain._

 _ **"Aw shit."**_ _Metalicana thought to himself_ _ **"Now I remember... that one night six years ago..."**_

 _"What ye sticking him with me fer?" Metalicana questioned._

 _"His mother has recently passed from the plague." Merebeth explained "He has no one else except you and his mother's will states you're to gain custody of him."_

 _"Miss Stewards," Skiadrum interrupted "Ye do realize we're pirates. This isn't the line of work a child should be exposed to."_

 _"There isn't much of a choice for him." Merebeth explained "If Metalicana refuses to take him, little Gajeel here will have to be sent to the orphanage."_

 _Metalicana looked down at the young boy and suddenly felt a pang in his chest at the idea of the child being sent to the orphanage. He heard the orphanage wasn't the best place for children but also the life he lived wasn't good for him either. But once he weighed it all in, he realized this child's best option._

 _"I'll take 'im." Metalicana finally sighed._

 _"What?" Skiadrum quipped in a surprised tone._

 _"I'll take the child. If he has no where to go, it's best he be with his father."_

 _"Excellent!" Merebeth clapped happily "Gajeel, be a good boy with your father!" after she said that, Merebeth and the guards left Gajeel without another word. Metalicana then placed his hand on Gajeel's head, ruffling his hair a bit and then walked onto the ship with Skiadrum and his newfound son._

* * *

Gajeel's eyes opened slowly the very next morning after the confrontation with Porla, he looked around the room and found a nude Levy next to him, cuddled up and snoring lightly. After that mishap, Jellal spoke with Gajeel and Warrod and agreed that it was best the former pirate was put under the protection of The Order of The King. Warrod agreed under the condition The Metalicana's crew and The Order of The King were to help get his granddaughter returned safely and he was not to be charged for his past crimes. They agreed. So last night, they stopped at a port that was ran by members of The Order of The King and handed the old man over.

As Gajeel reminisced yesterday's events, he heard a

 _ **Bang bang bang!**_

 _"Gajeel it's me!"_ Lily's voice called _" I'm coming in."_

 _Aw shit!_ The door soon opened and as it did, Levy's eyes opened, she spotted a shocked and horrified Lily staring at them and she realized right there, her breast were exposed.

"EEEEEEK!" Levy squealed as she covered herself with the blanket.

"A-am I interrupting something?" he stammered.

"N-no!" Levy squeaked and she quickly gathered her nightgown and put it on under the bed sheets.

"We-well." Lily cleared his throat, trying to forget what he saw "You're both needed in the study. We need to discuss where the location of what's left of the Iron Dragon."

"Very well." Gajeel replied as he put on his pants on "We'll be there soon." Lily left the room after Gajeel spoke, considering a large mug of ale to help forget what he saw.

* * *

The meeting began between Gajeel, his most trusted crew members and Jellal. They stood in the room and right in front of a table with a map of the world pinned to it.

"The Iron Dragon was destroyed eight-teen years ago." Jellal explained "The only survivors are Captain Redfox and Jose Porla of the Phantom Lord. "

"Personally I still find that shit fucking weird." Gajeel confessed while drinking his ale.

"Do you remember where the wreckage is?" Juvia asked Gajeel.

"It was a long time ago." Gajeel shrugged "Remember it was near where Lily's from."

"Exceed Isle." Lily confirmed "I remember that day well. I remember seeing Gajeel and Porla washing up on our shores and we cared for them until we could get them a boat back to human lands."

"So it had to have been not too far from where Lily's from." Lucy pointed out. Levy began to search the map until she spotted Exceed Isle and placed a pin in it.

"That's Exceed Isle!" she exclaimed "And if my calculations are correct... Gajeel, do you remember the weather that night?" Gajeel thought to himself for a moment before remembering.

"I think it was clear that night." he remembered.

"And do you remember what time the situation took place?"

"Around late the night before- maybe close to sunrise. Remember it was day when I woke up on Exceed Isle."

"I would have to say it's probably close to an hour from them and from the way currents go there." Levy began to ramble on and on to herself until she finally made a pin hit a small spot on the map "If my calculations are correct, that's where it is." everyone in the room formed a circle and stared at the small pin that symbolized the resting place of The Iron Dragon.

"Not too far from The Forbidden sea." Gray muttered.

"That's it huh..." Natsu breathed "The final resting place of the legendary Pirate Lord Metalicana." Lucy suddenly smacked him in the back of the head.

"Watch your tongue!" She screeched "That's our Captain's father! You don't know how he feels about this!"

Gajeel stared at the pin on the map with mixed feelings in his gut. He hasn't seen his father since that very day and it was hard for him to live a life without his father. If he didn't have Lily by his side he'd probably be dead. He didn't know how he felt if he went on what's left of his father's ship. Maybe a piece of him wanted to go back all these years to close that chapter in his life for good? Maybe he wanted to find his father's body so he can give him the proper burial he always deserved?

"Gajeel," Levy's voice broke his little trance and he looked to her as her eyes looked at him with concern "Are you certain you want to do this?"

"Don't have a choice." he confessed "Me old man hated Jose after I came along. Personally, I think he always did but didn't want to fucking say anything. Wasn't until these nightmares came along that made me old man start expressing his hatred. I don't think he'd let Jose get that damn stone if he knew what it meant. I am Metalicana's heir after all, I do have a right to it." he got up from his spot and looked to everyone in the room.

"Juvia," he ordered "set a course for this area at once!"

"Aye aye captain!" Juvia nodded before heading out to fulfill his order.

* * *

Sometime the next day, The Metalicana began to slowly sail into a foggy yet gray sea. As the ship sailed, the crew began to watch as they found pieces of wood and skeletal remains on jagged rocks. Soon, Jet, who was in the crows nest spotted something:

"Captain!" he hollered "Look!" everyone looked into the direction Jet pointed at and there, lying on pieces of rocks, broken into three separate areas and the wood decaying was what was left of The Iron Dragon.

"Is that it?" Wendy asked "Is it really The Iron Dragon?" Lily handed the telescope he was holding to Gajeel who looked to the front of thr ship and found a dragon carved onto it. Gajeel remembered it well, it served as the ship's guardian and was his most favorite piece of the whole ship. He loved looking at it when they were at the docks. Now seeing it in such a gloomy state, made him sad a little.

"That's it." Gajeel confirmed "That's the Iron Dragon."

"My God.." Jellal muttered in pure horror "What happened here?"

"To this day, even I don't know." Gajeel confessed before making his speech "Listen up land lubbers! Only a small amount of us are going on that ship! Salamander, nudist, Juvia and bunny girl! Ye get center of the ship! Erza, Jellal and Wendy take front. Levy, Lily and I take the back. The rest of the crew is to stay on board and protect the ship. If The Phantom Lord arrives, sound the alarm and show no mercy to those bilge rats."

"YES CAPTAIN!" they all hollered.

* * *

They took three of the life boats to the Iron dragon and docked on nearby rocks. Once there, everyone made their ways into the ship and went their separate ways. Natsu, Lucy, Juvia and Gray made their way into the center of the ship which was formidable in size, had a few holes to shine sunlight and what looked like scorch marks and burnt debris. Along with multiple skeletons.

"Unbelievable." Lucy muttered softly.

"This looks like something really bad happened here." Natsu confessed.

"From the looks of things, I say a fire broke out." Gray pointed out "How it started I don't know. But I wouldn't be asking our captain since he doesn't seem to remember much, nor does he want to."

"Gray-sama is so wise!" Juvia smiled happily.

"Think it might be a good idea to move some of these dead guys?" Natsu asked while staring at one of the skeletons.

"NO!" Lucy ordered "If we do that's disrespectful to the dead!"

"Juvia guesses we'll only move them if they have the stone." Juvia pointed out.

"Agreed, let's start looking." with that they started to look.

* * *

"Amazing..." Jellal spoke with awe "The legendary Iron dragon itself. I have scholars who'd love to study this ship."

"We're not here for a study lecture." Erza jabbed "We need to find that stone before Jose does. If he does we're screwed. Ye hear?"

"I just don't want to imagine what will happen if they find the stone first." Wendy shockingly admitted.

* * *

Gajeel, Levy, and Lily walked into the back of the ship and eventually found Captain Redfox's study, but instead of being the room he remembered as a child, one that was so bright and shining and filled with gorgeous treasures from his past adventures, was now dark and burnt, and filled with so much lifelessness.

"So this is Metalicana's study." Lily said aloud.

"Amazing." Levy said "Imagine all the adventures he planned in this one very room." Gajeel looked around the room wih a hint of sadness in his eyes, it was hard to see this room again. As he walked around the room, something caught his eye; there, in the corner of the room with a sword through his gut, was the skeletal remains of Metalicana Redfox.

"Is that-" Lily suddenly noticed.

"Yeah." Gajeel confirmed "It's me old man." Levy felt pure sadness fill her soul and then she looked to Gajeel.

"Gajeel, I'm so sorry." Levy soothed.

"Fuck! Why did this happen?! Me old man had his enemies but none were crazy enough to take him on! He didn't deserve this! We didn't deserve this!" he breathed in and out as tears began to fall, remembering the last time he saw his father was when his father ordered him to grab his satchel and collect all the maps, notes and anything that was of heavy value. After that he was clinging to a board of wood with Jose Porla.

"I'm sorry dad." Gajeel whispered to his father's skeleton "Wish I could'a done more for ye." as he looked down to the floor boards, something in the corner of his eye caught his interest. He looked up and looked to his father's skeletal hands. One was clutching onto his sword, one that was made with the best metals. The other hand was clutching something with a red gleam. Gajeel leaned in closer and decided to hold his father's hand, and pull the hand open. There in Metalicana's hand was the stone they were looking for.

"Holy shit!" Gajeel screamed "I found it! Lily! Levy! I foun-" he turned around to find two men he's never seen before holding Levy and Lily hostage, with swords to their throats. Gajeel quickly put the gem in his pocket, grabbed his father's sword and his own and pulled it on the two men. From what he remembered, his father once taught him as a child how to fight with two swords.

"Lay one sword on the men and they will kill your friends." a voice ordered Gajeel. He turned to find Porla entering the room with a smirk on his face "Ah the old study, it's been ages since we've been in this room. Last time I was here was before yer father died."

"Fuck off Porla!" Gajeel growled "Ye lost every right to be here the day ye tried to get yer filthy hands on me! It may be ruins but this is still my father's ship! He should've made ye walk the plank when he had the chance!"

"He tried but he just couldn't." Jose sighed in bored tone "Now, I'm only going to say this once. Give me the stone, or your friends die."

"Fuck ye!"

"Did I mention that my crew has yer's surrounded? Or the fact that if ye refuse, not only will yer friends here die; but everyone else on yer crew will as well. I'm going to signal my crew to destroy the Metalicana if ye do anything. So what will it be Gajeel?"

Gajeel realized right away this wasn't good. If he tried to save Levy and Lily, everyone else will die, if he handed the stone over, then The Fairy Tail was all his. Realizing there was no other choice, Gajeel did something he could only think of; he handed the stone to Jose.


	18. Chapter 18

Author's note: yep Gajeel gave in. Kinda shocking I know but let's see how this turns out! By the way I am taking a break again next week. I know I've been taking a lot of breaks lately and I apologize about it; but I'm finally going to be finishing a college class that I had to retake and these past few months, I've been mainly focusing on that. Next week is our second to last test then the following week is our finals.

* * *

 **Chapter 18: Journey to The Isle of Mysteries and Sorrow**

The Phantom Lord was a mighty pirate ship. One large in size, made from the finest woods and could fit as much cargo as several galleons and a prison that could hold quite a bit of prisoners. That's where the Metalicana's crew was now. After Gajeel handed the stone to Jose on The Iron Dragon, Jose took Gajeel, Levy, Lily and the rest of The Metalicana's crew into their custody.

They all sat in the brig, their hands tied and or chained behind their backs, forced to wait for what will happen to them next. Levy was knocked unconscious after Gajeel surrendered and when she finally came to, she found herself chained from behind and sitting in the brig of the Phantom Lord. Next to her were Gajeel and Lily.

"Levy!" Lily spoke up happily "You're awake!" Gajeel, along with the rest of the crew turned to their attention to the blue haired loreist.

"Levy!" Lucy called out in the next cell "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Levy told her friends "Is everyone else okay? What happened?"

"We were ambushed by Jose." Gajeel growled "Fucking bildge rats came in, threatened ye, Lily and the rest of the crew and made me hand over the damn in here ever since."

"What about the Metalicana?!"

"It's fine as far as we know." Lily explained "They took everyone from the crew off the ship and took the ship into their custody."

"You're kidding." Levy deadpanned.

"No we're not." Jet, a crew member told Levy through the neighboring cell "They took us all off the ship and threw us in here. Why they did this I don't know."

"They're plotting something." Erza who was in the cell across spoke up "If they needed Gajeel so badly they could've just taken him. Jose has some ulterior motive for sure."

"I agree with Erza." Jellal said in the cell next to Erza's "Jose is up to something."

"Now all we just got to do is plan our escape." said Juvia while getting herself in a more comfortable sitting position.

"I think I got an idea." Gray commented "I noticed that the guards switch out a lot and leave ther post with out permission." he moves his eyes to a nearby area where a guard was supposed to be but wasn't "I think we can take advantage of that when everyone is distract-"

"Quiet!" Natsu suddenly interrupted "Someone's coming." they stopped to listen and realized Natsu was right, someone was coming. The sound of foot steps hitting the boards of the ship soon reached the crew and three of Jose's lackeys: Totomaru, Aerea and Sol arrived.

"Our captain has requested ye all to be brought up deck. Non Non Non." said Sol while he bent in weird ways.

"On what grounds?" Lucy questioned the men.

"That's for him to say." Totomaru smirked while opening a few of the cells. Some other members of The Phantom Lord arrived and restrained The Metalicana's crew. With everyone together, they were brought up to the deck.

* * *

Jose stood at the stern of The Phantom Lord, staring out to the sea and in front of his glorious view was the Metalicana, sitting in the still waters and ready to set sail again. The crew for The Metalicana was brought up to the deck and all forced to face Jose.

"So here ye are!" Jose began "Ye willingly surrendered yerself for the sake of yer crew's lives. How beautiful." he turned around and face Gajeel and the crew with a smirk on his face "Since you decided to help me with my plans. I have a gift for ye and yer crew."

 _He better not make us walk the fucking plank!_ Gajeel thought to himself. Jose walked closer to Gajeel and his crew with a smirk.

"Do ye see yer ship in the distance?" he questioned. The crew looked into the distance before Levy put two and two together.

"Oh no..." she whispered to herself.

"Well, I have a _**very**_ special surprise for ye. I had my crew load yer precious ship with some dynamite. Any second now yer ship will-"

 _ **KA-BOOM!**_

It was at that moment, the Metalicana exploded and set fire. Gajeel felt his blood boil.

"YE BASTARD! I'LL FUCKING KILL YE!" hollered Gajeel. His face red with anger, the veins in his neck, surfacing to the skin and Gajeel struggled so he could try to cause harm to the Phantom Lord's captain, Jose just laughed.

"Glad ye like yer gift!" Jose clapped sarcastically "Take them all away and set a course for the Isle. That's our next step."

"Yes Captain!" hollered the men before taking the Metalicana's crew back to their cells where they all sat, looked to the window, watched The Metalicana sink to the ocean floor and they all silently wept over the loss of their ship.

* * *

The day turned to night and eventually, night turned to day. Gajeel and Levy woke up in heir cells in the early morn. Some of the crew was still sleeping but the events spooked Gajeel and Levy enough to wake up earlier than normal.

"Can't sleep?" Levy whispered a bit tiredly.

"No." Gajeel whispered back "My fucking ship is gone, and we're all in this fucking miserable place."

"But we're alive. We all are."

"Yeah, I'm grateful fer that but still, I don't think we can escape. We could steal the Phantom Lord; but I don't want this fucking ship. Disgusts me if ye ask me."

"I think we can escape without stealing The Phantom Lord." Gajeel looked at her with confusion the moment she said that.

"The Fairy Tail." she told Gajeel "Mavis is calling out to you. And from the looks of it, I wouldn't be surprised if that ship will only answer to you at the helm."

"What're ye sayin?" Gajeel questioned.

"I'm saying, when they aren't looking, we fight back, get onto the Fairy Tail and escape on the Fairy Tail!" Gajeel looked at her with a straight face, why the hell hasn't he thought of that?!

"Yer the best ye know that."

"Aww you're just saying that."

"Nah." he kissed Levy on the lips until their cell door began to open.

"Hate to break the romance," said a voice, they turned to find Totomaru standing there "but Captain Jose wants Redfox on deck."

"For what reasons?" Gajeel growled.

"We're almost to where the Isle is supposed to be." Totomaru smirked "And since that's happening, yer the only one the isle will show to. We need yeh." he went over to Gajeel and grabbed him by the arm, forcing him to get up and leave his cell, leaving Levy, to plan to tell the crew their escape plan.

* * *

Gajeel arrived on the deck a few minutes later. It was a gray and foggy morning, but this was a fog that was quite dense. Too dense to be exact. As he looked at the fog he remembered something his father told him:

 _ **"The Forbidden Sea has a fog surrounding it all the time. It is dense to where ye won't be able to see what's in front of ye or yer own toes. Many have died because of this."**_ It looks like that's where they were: The Forbidden Sea.

"Ah Gajeel!" Jose's voice rung out and soon he made his appearance through the dense fog "I hope ye and yer crew slept well."

"Fuck ye man." Gajeel growled.

"I'll be sure to do that afterwards." Jose sarcastically replied "Now are ye ready for yer job?"

"The hell ye want me to do ye bildge rat?" Gajeel shrugged.

"It's simple. The Isle will only show to ye, and we have ye stand there like a worm on a hook til the isle shows."

"C-Captain!" a deck hand called out "Look!" Jose raced over to the deck hand and watched as Jose's compass began to sway in every direction.

"Put the stone on it ye fool!" he hollered before they finally put the stone onto it. The stone began to glow and soon the compass stopped spinning and pointed east.

"Head east immediately!" Jose hollered to his crew. He continuously watched the compass and told his crew which was to go. Gajeel watched this until he noticed something in the distance; a small area where the sea was calm. While everywhere around hem had rugged waves and whatnot, this area remained calm.

 _Pretty fucking weird._ he thought to himself.

"Stop!" Jose suddenly called out "The compass isn't working anymore!" They all looked around in confusion and wonder until the clearing began to bubble. They all stood there again with confusion until suddenly, a rock peaked out of the waters and began to grow at a rapid rate.

The waves began to move fast from the sudden shock and everyone on board held on until suddenly, an island with gray sands and a skull mountain appeared out of the water.

"The Isle Of Mysteries and Sorrow." Jose spoke out with awe in his voice "After all these years, I finally found it."


	19. Chapter 19

Author's note: Whew! Final is finished and I can move on with my life! Great news is I passed my class and I can now get my degree! Now it's time for this nerd to get back into geeking out!

* * *

 **Chapter 19: The Isle of Mysteries and Sorrow**

Everyone on board The Phantom Lord stared in awe at the large mass of land floating before them. The Isle of Mysteries and Sorrow, a place known to have driven men and pirates alike mad just to find it. A place where an untold treasure lies buried, a place where two lovers are still trapped and needing help.

"At long last.." Jose whispered "After years of searching... The treasure is all mine." he looked to the rest of his crew and smirked "And of course I will be giving ye all a cut of the loot!" the crowd cheered at his words "Soon, The Fairy Tail will be rightfully ours!" the Phantom Lord's crew once again cheered at Jose's words, only louder this time.

 _"Shit,"_ Gajeel thought to himself _"Now what? Hope Levy has a good idea to escape or we're fucked!"_ Gajeel suddenly felt his chains being tugged by his captor when he came to.

"Get the Metalicana's crew on board and let them on the island with us." Jose ordered "I want to see their faces as I become the Fairy Tail's captain and then watch as I kill their captain...then them." Gajeel swallowed, this isn't good, they needed to get the hell out of here as soon as possible!

* * *

The Metalicana's crew was brought up from the bottom deck and brought in the small life boats. They were rowed out along with the Phantom Lord's crew and all sat in pure silence. Gajeel glanced over to Levy who was in the next boat and noticed, she was sitting with her head down. She was probably keeping silent to prevent suspicion. Thinking for a moment, Gajeel realized she probably told the rest of the crew their plans to escape on the Fairy Tail and decided to try and do the captiously thing and keep along with the plan as well.

Eventually the boats reached the gray sands and everyone was forced out of the boats, forced to walk on the sands and into the jungles of the isle. As they walked, Gajeel looked around and began to hear something: He heard singing.

 _ **"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me**_

 _ **We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot**_

 _ **Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho**_

 _ **We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot**_

 _ **Drink up me 'earties, yo ho"**_

His ears perked up hearing this as he knew the voice very well. Jose caught this and decided to point his gun at Gajeel.

"You heard something." he growled "What did you hear?"

"The Fuck?! I didn't hear shi-"

"Ye heard something. I know it." he pulled Levy close to him and pointed the gun to her temple "If you don't tell me, I'll kill her."

"Don't ye fucking da-"

"I will. Besides, she's of no use to me after I confiscated her notes on potential locations of treasure." realizing there was no arguing with Jose, Gajeel confessed.

"Singing." He confessed "I heard singing. I heard a girl singing _A Pirate's Life For Me._ "

"We must be close then." Jose confirmed "If ye heard the singing, then the Fairy Tail must be near." they continued on foot and watched as Gajeel would continue to hear the singing. Left, right, circled a tree, left, another left and a right. Soon, they found a large cave. As Gajeel listened, he heard the singing again:

 _ **"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me**_

 _ **We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot**_

 _ **Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho**_

 _ **We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot**_

 _ **Drink up me 'earties, yo ho"**_

"Ye hear it?" Jose asked.

"Yeah." Gajeel sadly confirmed.

"Into the cave!" ordered Jose. They all moved into the cave as they moved, you could hear the chains of The Metalicana's crew clanking together. when reaching what appeared to be the halfway point, Levy suddenly punched her captor in the gut, roundhouse kicked a few men who tried to stop her.

"NOW!" she screeched. With her word, the rest of the gang began to attack their captors, Gajeel joined in, crushing a few people between the cave wall and then: _Clank!_ Gajeel's shackles broke, he took the sword of the nearby Phantom Lord Pirate and began to fight back.

He broke Levy's restraints and she revealed she had a knife in her boot, slashing at her enemies and then taking an enemy's sword and breaking Natsu's restraints which caused him to kill his guard and broke free Lucy. This pattern continued until The Metalicana's crew was freed and fought back with all the force they had.

"Fight back!" Jose ordered "You cowards! Fight back!"

"They're overpowering us!" Totomaru hollered "Captain! Go ahead of us! Ye need to get the Fairy Tail!"

"Ye didn't need to tell me!" Jose hollered angrily before running off to find The Fairy Tail.

"Gajeel!" Levy hollered "You need to go after him!" she then kicked a member of Phantom Lord's crew in the head.

"Ye crazy?!" he hollered "I can't leave ye behind!"

"Ye have to!" Lily spoke out while smashing two heads together "The Fairy Tail needs ye! And who knows what will happen if Jose gets a hold of it!"

"We'll be fine!" Erza said after going through three men "Just do what needs to be done!"

Gajeel smiled at everyone's words before Levy passionately kissed him on the lips.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love ye too." he replied.

"What're you waiting for?! GO!" with that said, Gajeel ran further into the cave to catch up with Jose.


	20. Chapter 20

Author's note: We're reaching the climax of the series! Get ready for some big moments!

* * *

 **Chapter 20: Truths and Secrets**

Jose ran through the cave as fast as his feet could take him until he spotted a bright light ahead. He ran until he reached a large clearing, the clearing was littered with pirates who were covered in cobwebs and sleeping since the spell was placed. He studied them closely and noticed no one was waking up. Good, he could reach his goal quicker. As Jose studied the area, he noticed a river that lead to the outside _A way out_ he would think to himself.

As his eyes scanned the clearing, something caught his eyes; a large Pirate ship, possibly a galleon in origin or could be a Queen Ann's Revenge in style, sitting on top of a very large pile of gold coins and gems, The Fairy Tail.

"At long last." Jose breathed.

"PORLA!" a voice reverberated through the cave walls. Jose turned around to find Gajeel running towards him with his sword and ready to fight.

He swung his sword at Jose only for him to block the attack and begin to fight back. The two cutlassed and couried and slashed until the swords were at Jose's throats. With quick thinking, Jose kicked Gajeel in the gut and continued their fight. They backed to the pile of gold nearby and slashed away up the mountian. Gajeel and Jose tried their best to keep their footing on the piles of gold while they tried to slash and hack away at each other. As Gajeel stood up and slashed at Jose, he lost his footing on some gold and fell. Only for Jose to stop him and put the sord to his throat.

"Well well well." Jose smirked "Isn't this something? Another Redfox at the end of my sword. Beautiful." Gajeel's eyes widened at Jose's words.

"T-The hell ye sayin?!" Gajeel growled.

"Isn't it obvious?" Jose asked "Ye saw the sword that was plunged into yer father's body, shouldn't ye have put two and two together by now Gajeel my boy?" as Gajeel heard those words, a sudden realization hit him.

"It was ye!" Gajeel barked "Ye caused that accident!"

"Ain't it obvious?" smirked Jose "I crashed the Iron Dragon close to the border of The Forbidden Sea that night. I wanted to get the ship there despite Metalicana's orders so I could find the treasure meself. Yer father was a weak man Gajeel. After he learned I was behind his precious ship being damaged and half his crew dying he tried to kill me right then and there. He knew I would try to go for you afterwards and died at me hands."

"Ye-"

"He actually tried to escape so he could get to ye. He was going to try and save ye and make sure I never got my hands on ye."

"Why?! Why the fuck ye do all this?! Why didn't ye take me back then?!"

"Ye were a child" Jose simply waved "I hate children so I was going to wait till ye were older. To be honest I forgotten ye had those dreams until recently." Jose then started to bring the sword closer to Gajeel's throat "Since we are where The Fairy Tail is, and I told ye everything, I have no use for ye. I guess it's time to end yer miserable life. Say hello to Metalicana for me will ye?" just when he was about to do the deed-

 _ **BANG! CRASH!**_

Jose was whacked in the head with a large goblet and came crashing down to the pile of gold. The one who did this, was Levy.

"Damn!" Gajeel choked out "Glad ye made it!"

"Jose had it coming." Levy shrugged "I wanted to give him that for what happened to The Metalicana." she handed Gajeel her hand and helped him get his footing again.

"The crew," he asked "are they-"

"They're fine." Levy waved "The Phantom Lord's crew didn't stand a chance. We have them all tied up outside the cave. We were considering taking them prisoner and marooning them."

"Gihihihi." cackled Gajeel "I love me crew." they looked up to the Fairy Tail and stared in awe.

"It's really it." Levy suddenly spoke "The Fairy Tail. We found it."

"Well," Gajeel clapped his hands together "let's go inside."

"Y-you want to go in?"

"Don't gotta choice do we? I mean we got Mavis and her man up there looking to be freed, and we got the crew looking to get the hell off this rock. If we don't, we're screwed."

"You have a point there." she confessed "I don't think we have a choice, let's go." agreeing on this, Gajeel and Levy began to make their way up the mountain of gold before finding a window, carefully opening it and making their way into The Fairy Tail.


	21. Chapter 21

Author's note: I'm frigging exhausted. Cannot express how insane these past two weeks have literally been. Prepared for a con, job interviews, went to a con, saw a lot of my friends, appointments, met up with very long time friend, emergency vet visit, how I'm still in one piece is beyond me. Time to get back to the story!

* * *

 **Chapter 21: The Couple in the Crystal**

Gajeel made it in first to the ship and soon pulled Levy through the window, once her feet hit the ground, the lovers looked around the ship and studied it's interior. The ship was made from some of the finest wood out there, it was old and creaky but nothing too serious. There was a scent of wood but also a thin trace of salt. There were cobwebs in small areas of the ship and gold coins and gems scattered all over the place. But what caught their attention the most, was when they noticed tiny crystal shards embedded into the floor and walls.

"If that ain't a big hint I don't know what is." Gajeel muttered out loud.

"That has to lead to where Mavis and Zeref are!" Levy exclaimed "I think if we keep following the crystallized walls we can find Mavis and Zeref."

"Yeah, quicker we get there, better off they are."

"I hope we can get them out soon. I feel pretty bad for them Gajeel, they've been under this spell for so long." Gajeel then put a reassuring hand on Levy's shoulder as if to comfort her.

"We'll get'em out." Gajeel assured "We'll end this nightmare once and fer all. I swear it." Levy smiled at Gajeel's words before they moved forward. As they moved forward, they noticed the crystals growing in size and a light coming from a nearby room. Gajeel and Levy exchanged glances and soon began to run down the hall until they reached a door hat was crystallized shut.

Gajeel placed his hand against the door and felt the cool stone against his palm.

"Looks like a sword won't open it." Levy realized as she stared at it.

"Good thing I stole some dynamite off of Porla, gihihihihi." Gajeel smirked in an evil manner as he pulled out two sticks of dynamite and a match.

"Wait- Gajeel, what're you doing?"

"What's it look like? I'm gonna blow the shit outta this bilge rat of a door!" he flicked the match till it lit up and put the tiny flame to the dynamite causing it to light and begin to give off a _tsssssssssssss_ noise.

"RUN!" he hollered. Gajeel grabbed Levy and ran down the hall until they heard a _**KA-BOOOM!**_ and felt the ship shake. They fell to the ground, covering their heads from any debris, once the quakes had ended, the pirates got up from where they landed and raced back to the explosion where they found the door completely blasted off and damage to the rest of the ship.

"I can't believe that worked." admitted Levy "That seemed to me like it wouldn't-"

"Get in." interrupted Gajeel.

"I'm sorry?"

"Get in, the fucking ship is repairing itself!"

She looked with wide eyes as the ship began to repair itself. Gajeel grabbed Levy, flung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and rushed into the room, right when the door and ship completely repaired itself, only this time, there was no crystal on the door.

"That must be the ship's magic." Levy realized "The ship must repair itself when it's damaged."

"A ship that can repair itself?" Gajeel pondered "That could save a hell of alotta gold."

He let Levy down from his grip and as they looked around the room, they noticed the room was decorated in large crystals and soon, they found a very large crystal in the room. That large crystal, had two people in it. A man and a woman, both cradling in each others arms in what appeared to be their last moments: Captain Mavis Vermillion and Captain Zeref Dragneel.

"That has to be them." Levy said out loud "We have to get them out!" she went to grab a nearby chair or something to help break the crystal and began to bang against he hard rock. As she continued her assault, she stopped when she suddenly heard a simple _c-click_.

Levy suddenly felt her blood run cold and felt her heart race, this wasn't good.

 _Please don't be who I think that was._ she silently prayed to God. As she turned her head, she found Gajeel with his hands up and Jose standing in front of them with a gun in hand.

"Step away from that crystal girl." he ordered, Jose looked disheveled and a look in his eye told her he was mentally unstable. Levy obliged in a calm manner and made her way closer to Gajeel "I've had enough with ye two and yer crew! This ship belongs to me and me alone and I won't let ye and some dead couple get in my way!"

"What about yer crew?" Gajeel pointed out.

"Fuck them! They're a bunch of useless idiots!" Jose barked "Can't do anything right and even when things go right they screw up! Better off alone at this point! Now, I'm going to count to three and when I do, I will kill yeh both. Ye caused me enough trouble! I will get my ship even if it kills me! One...Two...Thr-" he was cut off when a bright light omitted from the crystal both Mavis and Zeref were trapped in. The light was blinding and caused all three to cover their eyes.

Once the light had diminished, they witnessed the couple that was trapped for over 100 years fall onto the ground, unable to use their bodies due to lack of movement all these years and then finally, both finally opened their eyes.

"Ma...Mavis..." Zeref croaked out as he tried to get his arm to pull Mavis in closer.

"W-what happened?" Mavis hoarsely asked.

"I think yer spell was broken. We're free."


	22. Chapter 22

Author's note: Not much to say except enjoy! _**Warning: violence and blood and death**_

* * *

 **Chapter 22: Ancient Quarrels**

They all looked in complete surprise as the couple in front of them did their best to get their barrings. Zeref was soon able to get use of his arms and torso and lifted himself up into a sitting position before grabbing Mavis and helping her up before kissing her forehead in a loving manner.

"We're free Zeref." Mavis suddenly muttered "Someone finally answered my cries for help." she looked to the three in front of her and smiled at them "Thank ye so muc-"

"Blah blah blah blah!" Jose mocked "I didn't come here to rescue ye. I came here to rob ye blind!" he pointed the gun at the couple before once again, turning the safety off "Time to die. Getting sick of this cra-"

 _ **Bang!**_

Silence spread across the room before everyone looked in shock and soon watched a crimson dot form where Jose's heart would be and watched as the dot grew larger.

"W-what?" he coughed "Th-that shouldn't..." blood spurted leaked from Jose's mouth before collapsing on the ground, dead. Mavis let out a blood curdling scream before Zeref pulled her in closer out of protection.

"Holy shit!" Gajeel shouted, wide eyed in shock "Who the fuck killed that son of a bitch?! Whoever did it-THANK YE!"

"Gajeel!" Levy hollered "Now's not the time no matter how much of a bilge rat Jose was! I know it wasn't you who shot him, I know it wasn't me and it wasn't Zeref or Mavis, this is a problem!"

"Someone else's here." Gajeel realized "Who though?" Zeref's eyes suddenly began to widen and his grip on Mavis tightened.

"It was you wasn't it?!" he hollered "Show yerself Acnologia!" Footsteps echoed through the room before a man with dark skin and dark blue hair emerged from the shadows; Acnologia.

"Yer finally awake, my sweet Mavis." he smiled with a smile that would cause chills down your spine, he was holding the gun that he shot Jose with.

"A-Acnologia?!" Levy gulped, trying to prevent her knees from shaking"The pirate from the legends?!"

"The one and only." he smirked wider "I've waited for this day for over 100 years Mavis, I was cursed by a witch after what happened and now I'm forced to live a life immortality. I've waited years for the day I can take Mavis back and take the Fairy Tail; now we can perform The Passing."

"The Passing?" Gajeel asked.

"It's how to transfer ownership of the Fairy Tail." Mavis suddenly spoke out "The Fairy Tail is no ordinary ship, in order for ye to be able to control it, a special ritual must be performed."

"And we're going to perform it and afterwards, yer going to become my bride." Acnologia replied, causing everyone to look in horror.

"Don't you dare touch her!" Zeref hollered, with what strength he regain, he managed to get feeling back into his legs and tried to attack Acnologia to protect the woman he loved only for Acnologia to throw him into the wall nearby.

"Yer still a weakling Captain Zeref!" Acnlogia smirked "And now is my opportunity!" he raced to Mavis only to have Gajeel and Levy try and protect her, only to end up slammed against the wall like Zeref.

"Weaklings the lot of ye." Acnologia smirked as he picked up Mavis in a bridal style while she struggled against him "After I become the new captain, I'll deal with ye three then make Mavis my wife." he left the room with Mavis struggling to get away and soon began to make his way to the helm of the ship.

"Ye got to stop him!" Zeref croaked out "Ye got to save Mavis before it's too late!" he let out a cough and soon opened a window to empty his stomach "I'd go myself but I can't fight in my current state. It has to be ye!" Levy made her way to Zeref and put a comforting hand on him before taking him to Mavis's chair. and letting him rest.

"Gajeel," Levy suddenly spoke out "You go after Acnologia and Mavis! I'm going to stay here and watch Zeref."

"I can't leave ye here!" Gajeel said "He's going to come back!"

"Yes you can! Mavis needs help and Zeref can't save her! You're the one she called! And if you don't, Acnologia will become Captain of The Fairy Tail and everything will end! It has to be you!"

"Please," Zeref suddenly spoke out while holding his gut in pain "Save Mavis! I beg of ye! She's all I have in this world." Gajeel looked at the dark haired Pirate Captain before nodding and hurrying out of the room.


	23. Chapter 23

Author's note: And the crash and burn hit as of last week! I literally had little to no energy for the past few days last week that I felt I had to cancel. Sorry I take a lot of breaks guys, since I got older I developed a lot more responsibilities and obligations that for the sake of my mental health and physical health I have to put a lot of things aside to focus on what's important. The past few weeks I've been running around like crazy with little time for myself so I took last week off to focus on other things, where the story is going and also, I started writing my own books! I don't want to give away way too much detail but I hope to get them both done by summer's end, (don't worry, I still plan to write fanfiction and got one under construction as we speak!) So here we go! **Warning: Graphic Violence**

* * *

 **Chapter 23: The Battle of the Century Part 1**

"Let go of me!" Mavis hollered as she pounded against Acnologia's back "Let go of me ye bilge rat!"

"Mavis, ye shouldn't be so crass to yer future husband." he told her "I think you'll change your ways once I take the Fairy Tail and make you my wife."

"No, I'll never give you the Fairy Tail or my heart! My heart belongs to Zeref and the sea!"

"Not for long." Acnologia smirked. That made Mavis only beat against his back harder.

As Acnologia brought Mavis to the ship's wheel, Gajeel followed close behind. His time training with his crew had really paid off since sneaking was as simple as making someone walk the plank to him. He crept close behind the two, trying to stay in the shadows and not be heard. Lives were on the line and if he slipped up right now it would be all over.

Acnologia made his way over to the ship's steering wheel and tossed Mavis onto the ground, forcefully took her hand and placed it on the ship's wheel. He placed his hand on the same wheel and gave Mavis an evil glare.

"Say the incantation." He threatened her.

"No!" she refused "I won't give ye the Fairy Tail!"

"Do the ritual or I will go downstairs and kill Zeref!" Acnologia pulled out a knife and stabbed the nearby railing with the knife to show he was serious. Realizing she was outmatched, Mavis fought the tears that were forming in her eyes and she soon began to choke out the incantation as she, the ship's wheel and Acnologia began to glow a golden aura:

 _"Oh River of light and songs of Fairies. Hear my prayers!_

 _I, Captain Mavis Vermillion do solemnly decree that Acnologia will becom-"_

Before she could finish that single sentence, Gajeel came from behind and stabbed Acnologia with his sword right through his chest. Mavis looked in pure shock at the scene and the aura disappeared entirely. She stumbled back and began to do her best to crawl away from the scene.

"Ye fucking idiot." growled Acnologia "Didn't ye hear me earlier?! I'm immortal! Nothing in this world can kill me!" He pulled the sword out of his chest and tossed it to the side "I maybe immortal; but I know yer aren't!"

Acnologia pulled his sword out from his sheath and ran towards Gajeel with intent to kill. Gajeel dodged his first attack and managed to get a hold of the sword he stabbed Acnologia with and blocked Acnologia's next attack. Gajeel held back the best he could before he could kick under Acnologia's legs, his enemy jumped and it gave Gajeel the opportunity to tumble away and play defense against Acnologia.

They slashed and dodged each and every attack. If Acnologia tried to play dirty, Gajeel would dodge and kick the immortal in the gut. Mavis watched the fight while doing her best to crawl away from the situation. She needed to get far away from Acnologia as much as possible and find a safe place.

She knew the Fairy Tail like the back of her hand. Every single nook and cranny of the ship she explored and knew all too well. There were times she'd mess with her crew mates and hide somewhere in the ship after all. She managed to find the ship's anchor and slid her way down the chain, finally making it to the bottom.

Mavis watched from where she stood as Gajeel and Acnologia continued their fight, destroying a few spots and breaking some of the wooden decal; thank God this ship was self healing. Before she could move farther away from the scene, she felt a hand grab onto her arm and another cover her mouth. Mavis almost gasped in horror but was soon met with Lucy.

"Shh!" Lucy soothed "It's okay! I'm on your side! Gajeel is my captain!" Mavis studied the girl's facial features before finally sensing she was telling the truth and calmed down.

* * *

Gajeel was running out of options. Acnologia was literally a nightmare to go against and he'd never even wish his worst enemies to go against him! Acnologia was slashing and charging against Gajeel, causing him to lose any chance of an upper hand. The immortal pirate took his sword and tried to cleave Gajeel with it, only cutting off a small amount of hairs on his head. Gajeel managed to find a split second to take his sword and cleave Acnologia's head clean off his body.

He thought for a moment he actually managed to kill him and breathed a sigh of relief. That was until he heard something that made his blood run cold.

"It's been many a year that someone cleaved me head off." Gajeel felt his breath stop at that remark. He watched with pure fear and horror as Acnologia's body began to move and make it's way around the ship, looking for it's severed head.

"Over here idiot!" He hollered to his body which caused it to go another direction "No, to yer left!"

The body began to go near the steps and soon fell down the nearby staircase. Honestly, when Gajeel woke up this morning, he didn't expect it to go like this.

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Acnologia's severed head hollered "Idiot! Can't ye follow me directions?!"

 _"Time to take advantage of this."_ Gajeel thought to himself as he made his way to Acnologia's head and picked it up by the hair.

"What do ye think yer doing bilge rat?!" Acnologia hollered.

"Getting rid of ye that' what!" Gajeel smirked devilishly.

"Not if I can help it!" Gajeel was caught off guard when Acnologia's body punched Gajeel and took it's head back, putting it back on it's body in the correct form and Gajeel watched as the wound on his neck began to heal.

"Now ye will pay for this!" Hollered Acnologia. It was right there and then Gajeel knew one thing: he fucked up.

* * *

Lucy had taken Mavis a bit farther away from the fight going on and made sure the legendary pirate captian was well taken care of. Some of the rest of the crew such as Natsu, Gray, Juvia and Wendy joined up with the two to help out.

"Thanks for the kindness." Mavis sighed "I didn't expect any of this to occur."

"We're just glad we can help." Natsu smiled "What do ye need?"

"A way to defeat Acnologia." Mavis deadpanned "He needs to be stopped! The problem is, he's immortal and yer Captian is fighting him right now as we speak."

"If this keeps up, the captain won't be able to defend himself any longer." Wendy realized.

"Is there any way to defeat an immortal?" asked Juvia.

"Only one." a voice called out. They turned their heads to find Levy with Zeref, making their way to the group "I remember seeing something a while ago about a spell to break curses." Mavis looked up to Levy and her eyes dilated a bit when she spotted Zeref.

"Zeref!" Mavis called out.

"Mavis!" Zeref as well called out. The man rushed his way to her and soon toppled onto her with a tight embrace "You're okay!"

"Awwww, isn't that sweet?" Juvia smiled.

"Levy," Lucy spoke out, getting back on the subject "do you know how to defeat Acnologia?"

"I think I do." Levy admitted "I have a book on spells I found at a library years ago. Bought it because I thought it was some ancient tome in a foreign language; but I soon learned it was a book of spells and stopped translating. One's a spell that breaks curses."

"Do you have the book with you?" Mavis asked, knowing this could be a big chance.

"No, it's back on the Phantom Lord. Jose confiscated all my books when he took us prisoner."

"It looks like Levy and I will have to go to this 'Phantom Lord' and get the book." Mavis revealed while doing her best to stand on her two feet "I'll go with Levy because I can use magic. If I can understand the spell, I can cast it."

"I'll go with you." Natsu offered "Yer gonna need some extra muscle to back ye up!"

"I will as well." a voice offered. It was Erza "Natsu and I will handle any trouble while you both get the book." Both girls looked at the two and smiled before the unlikely group started to make their way to the Phantom Lord.

"Levy!" Lucy called out "When you get back, you have to tell me what's going on between you and the captain!" Levy's whole face turned red at that comment.


	24. Chapter 24

author's note: We're in the home strech ladies and gents! After this one is two more chapters! Here we go!

* * *

 **Chapter 24: The Battle of The Century Part 2**

Mavis, Levy, Natsu and Erza raced outside to the sandy beaches of the isle and raced for the nearest boat. Once they found a boat, the four made their way into it, pushed it off the sandy bar and rowed out to the Phantom Lord. going as fast as they can on the boat before finally boarding the Phantom Lord.

Once making it onto the ship, Natsu grabbed onto the anchor's chain and climbed on board alone with Levy and Erza with Mavis on her back. Once finally on board the group looked around the ship to find no one there.

"There's no one here." Levy whispered "That's very odd." Mavis lifted the palm of her hand and a golden light appeared. She whispered a few words and blew on it. Like dust, the magical aura spread across the ship, revealing the truth.

"There's one on here." Mavis revealed "He's below deck, probably in the storage room." the dust disappeared and Mavis let out a long groan "It's been so long since I performed magic, it's taking a small toll on me."

"Try to save your strength." Erza soothed "You did good, but we need you to perform this spell." Mavis smiled at Erza's kindness. Natsu gave a smirk before pulling out what looked like firecrackers.

"Stand back girls." he smirked "I'll handle this." he made his way downstairs and not even a minute later, the distinct _Krack a boom!_ could be heard. Smoke filled the hallway downstairs the Phantom Lord and before long, the girls watched as a man was tossed out of the window, screaming for dear life and falling into shark infested waters.

"Not his day." Levy muttered to herself. The girls made their way down the stairs and eventually found the storage room. All of their belongings and several burlap bags could be seen across the room; looks like Jose was planning to profit off their belongings.

"Levy!" Erza hollered "There's your bag!" she pointed out to a bag on a nearby table and Levy recognized it immediately as her bag. She raced over to the bag and began to scrounge around until finally finding a large, brown tome,

"This is it!" Levy hollered "This is the book!" She slammed it down on the table and skimmed through the pages before finally finding the page she was looking for "Here! This is what I was talking about!"

"Let me see!" Mavis called out. Mavis made her way to the book and skimmed her finger across the page and smiled "This is it. It's a curse breaking spell. One that was lost long ago."

"Can ye use it?" Natsu asked while putting everyone's belongings into the bags so they could be returned to their owners.

"I can." Mavis nodded "I can read this language and translate it; but I will have to get back closer to the battle in order to perform it!"

"Simple enough," Erza smiled "let's get everything on the boat and get out of here."

They all grabbed the bags of their belongings, tossed them into the boat and soon, made their way down to get off the Phantom Lord.

"I'm really glad we're not going back on there." Natsu confessed as he started rowing away.

"I know," Levy sighed "Horrid ship. Just like it's captain; horrid."

"No, I'm saying this because I set off a ton of dynamite and gun powder on that ship."

"You what?!"

"Hey! Bastard destroyed our ship, I'm repaying the favor he and his ship can rest in Davy Jon-"

 _ **KA-BOOM!**_

The four looked over to the ship that was now in the distance and watched as the ship burst into flames and started to sink.

"Best moment all day." Erza smirked "Good job Natsu!" she gave the explosives expert a very rough pat on the back after his successful explosion.

* * *

Gajeel was growing tired. His heart was racing fast, his legs grew weak, his arms were sore. He fought this guy for what had to be two hours. He somehow managed to lose Acnologia and found a secret passage in the ship that was large enough for him to fit through. He sat in the passage and took his time to catch his breath. This guy was insane! He never expected to fight against Acnologia from the legends! Just what the hell was this guy?

"Come out Pirate!" he could hear Acnologia's voice ring in the ship "I know yer here somewhere! I won't let ye get away for chopping me head off!"

 _"Can't ye give it a break?!"_ Gajeel grumbled to himself _"This guy has to get tired sometime. When he does, that's when I try to take the ship for meself."_ Ten minutes passed and eventually, Gajeel started to feel less tired and strong enough to go back out there.

He quietly opened the door that lead him to the secret passage way and made it out of the passage way. He quietly moved through the ship, trying to remember where the stairs were before finally finding it and making his way to the helm. Once he made it, he began to look over the ship and see what needed to be done. Everything was mainly in order; but he needed to get the ship into the water. Just when his hands were about to touch the helm, he suddenly watched as a knife was thrown at him and missed him by a few centimeters.

"Thought ye could take what's rightfully mine?!" Acnologia hollered "Well, I ain't letting you take me ship!" he lunged at Gajeel with his sword and Gajeel managed to react quickly enough to escape "Get back here and fight me ye coward!" Gajeel played defense against him and did his best to avoid all the attacks. He dodged and climbed onto the pole of the ship, trying to avoid Acnologia's attacks.

"For the love of God." he muttered to himself "Someone do something!"

* * *

Mavis and the rest finally made their way back to the treasure room and soon found a good spot to place the book.

"This should be good." Mavis smiled "I can get in good range with Acnologia." she opened he book and skimmed through the pages of the book before finding the correct page.

 _"Oh River of lights and river of magic, I ask ye to hear my pleas. I give you my magic and words of pleas to cast this spell. Unbind the curse that was placed, and end all of the suffering. What's done is done and let it all go back!"_

A large golden aura surrounded the book before it grew too bright and soon spread across the room. The pirates who slumbered for 100 years began to awaken from their slumber and look around their surroundings, unsure of what was going on, then Acnologia began to glow and soon, the aura dissipated.

"What the hell?!" he hollered "What the fuck was that for?!" Something in Gajeel's head told him to strike now while he could.

He dropped to below and hit Acnologia square in the face with his boot. Once Acnologia hit the ground, Gajeel took his sword and stabbed Acnologia in the heart. Acnologia coughed up blood and soon, let out what was his last breath. That was it, it was all over. Acnologia was dead. Everyone could breathe a sigh of relief. That was, until the cave started to rumble.


	25. Chapter 25

Author's note: Alright! Time for the epic climax!

* * *

 **Chapter 25: Escape from the Isle**

The cave began to rumble and shake, causing some small stones to fall to the ground before the quakes finally subsided. Gajeel blinked owlishly before looking around and spotting something; a small leak of water coming from the cave wall. This wasn't good.

"Gajeel!" he heard a voice call out to him. Gajeel looked to his left to find Levy, Mavis, Zeref and the rest of the crew making their way to the Fairy Tail, climbing up to the ship and meeting with him.

"LEVY!" he hollered before running to the lorist and kissing her passionately.

"You did it!" she cried after breaking apart from their kiss "You defeated Acnologia! It's over!"

"Wasn't easy either." Gajeel admitted.

"Now we can finally get out of here and just live happily!" Natsu smiled.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Gray suddenly spoke out.

"The hell ye mean ice nuts?" Natsu growled.

"Didn't ye feel that rumbling earlier?" Gray asked "That didn't sound so good."

"I'm with the stripper on that one." Gajeel suddenly spoke out. He pointed his finger at the cave wall and pointed to the leak "Anybody noticed that? Looks like it's leaking."

"Any idea what it could be?" Lucy pondered out loud.

"Only one way to find out." Natsu smirked. He jumped off the Fairy Tail and made his way over to the leak in the wall. He held out his hand and made a small cup, allowing the liquid to touch his hand, drenching it. Natsu took his hand to his mouth and tasted the liquid before spitting it out.

"It's sea water!" he hollered "Definitely sea water!"

"Sea water?" Mira realized "If it's sea water... than that means-"

"The Isle is getting ready to move again." Zeref finished, causing a horrific silence among everyone.

"I-it's getting ready to move?!" Erza hollered.

"This is what it does." Mavis explained "The Isle moves from place to place by sinking itself and rising from the waters. Zeref and I originally came here to escape from the public eye, our love was considered forbidden in the pirate world. We went here to start a life here and never be found."

"But what about the fact it sinks?!" Cana pointed out the obvious "Didn't ye think it was going to cause some problems?!"

"We would've used Mavis's magic to handle that." Zeref shrugged.

"Seriously though," Gajeel suddenly growled out "how long do we have until we're under the fucking water?!" Mavis calculated the answer in her head before finally coming up with something.

"About three hours." Mavis surmised.

"We need to evacuate." Levy said "If we don't, we're going to drown!" Gajeel thought for a moment before deciding what to do next.

"Oi, Captain Mavis, Captain Zeref!" he hollered to the two legendary Pirate Lords "Get yer crews together and help us out. We got some prisoners on the front of the isle that need to be brought on board, also get them to help get the treasure on board. Once everything's settled, get everyone on board and we get the fuck outta here!" the Lords nodded to Gajeel, realizing his strategy and made their ways to their respected crews.

"Alright ye bildge rats of the Metalicana!" Gajeel hollered "Help Zeref and Mavis's crew out and get the damn treasure into the ship! We need to dig this ship outta the treasure and into the river and get the hell outta here!"

"YES CAPTAIN!" the Metalicana's crew hollered before splitting up and getting to work.

* * *

An hour past and the Metalicana's crew took buckets they found on board the Fairy Tail, dug it into the mountain of treasure, passed it to each member and poured it into the ship. Gajeel and Levy helped Mavis and Zeref prepare the ship for sailing by checking the sails, hoisting the anchor, doing everything they can before joining the others in putting the treasure into the ship. They also tossed Acnologia and Jose's corpses off the ship since it was the best way to get rid of them.

Jellal decided to help Erza out with carrying some of the treasure chests that were skewn around the pile of gold and jewels, they eventually got all the chests into the ship and joined the rest in getting the gold into the ship.

* * *

Two hours passed and about half the collection of treasure was in the ship. Another cave rumble occurred and they looked to see the seawater sinking in even further to the cave.

"STEP ON IT!" Gajeel hollered "We gotta get outta here!" the crew's pace doubled and before he realized it, he was witnessing a golden aura surround a good chunk of the gold and place it into the ship. Mavis was using her magic and getting all the gold into the ship.

The ship was finally dug out of the gold and soon landed in the nearby riverbed. The pirates lined up into the ship and made it to the main deck, prepared for the next step.

"How long until this place collapses?" Levy asked.

"Ten minutes." Zeref replied.

 _Bam!_

They all looked over to find Mavis had collapsed on the deck.

"Mavis!" Zeref hollered in worry. He rushed over to her and helped her up.

"I-I'm fine." she coughed "I used too much magic. I haven't done that in years, the problem is we need magic to get us out of here. WIth my levels so low right now, we may not make it."

"Shit, we're done fer at this rate." Gajeel grumbled.

"We may not be." Mavis suddenly spoke out "Only option is to transfer ownership of the ship to ye Gajeel." Gajeel looked at her with shock.

"C-Can't that wait?!" he asked "Cant ye rest up and get us outta here?"

"No." Mavis replied "At this rate we'll be trapped. It's our only option."

"Bu-"

"Gajeel," Pantherlily looked to him "Ye can do this."

"He's right." Levy smiled "You can." Gajeel was hesitant hearing this but sighed, they didn't have time to argue.

"Fine." he spoked "I'll do it."

Zeref carried Mavis over to the helm and both Gajeel and Mavis placed their hands on the helm. A golden aura surrounded Mavis, Gajeel and the ship, causing everyone to look around in awe.

 _"Oh River of light and songs of Fairies. Hear my prayers!_

 _I, Captain Mavis Vermillion do solemly decree that Gajeel Redfox will be the Captian of The Fairy Tail! Fairy Tail here me out! As my final decree, I order you to follow Gajeel's orders!"_

The light shined brightly and brilliantly until finally dimished. Mavis collapsed in Zeref's arms and fell fast asleep. The cave began to rumble and the water levels were beginning to rise.

"ALRIGHT EVERYONE!" Gajeel hollered, now feeling the power of the ship coursing through his veins "LET'S GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE!" The ship moved on it's own and Gajeel could feel as if he and the ship had developed a bond.

 _Go fast!_ he hollered in his head to the ship _Get us outta here! Let me and me crew be able to cause chaos, and let me and the woman I love be together._ As if the ship heard his pleas, it went faster and faster. Almost making it out of the cave, a rock that was falling from the ceiling almost hit the front entrance until the distinct sound of a _**KA-BOOM!**_ could be heard. Natsu was at the cannon and looked in total shock.

"I didn't even have to fill it." he admitted.

The ship went faster and faster until finally reaching the outer world, just in time for the whole isle to sink into the ocean again.


	26. Chapter 26

Author's note: Here we are! The Final Chapter! Thank you everyone for sticking it out with me the past 8 months I've been writing this. I am truly and forever grateful that everyone enjoyed this. For those wondering, yes, I do have a new series coming out after this. Actually- two series' coming out! One will be a two week update series and one is a weekly. However, I will be taking a small break to work more on the series' and focus on other things.

My methods are outdated when it comes to writing and I sincerely want to try a new method with writing. One that I have been testing on the side recently and I think will save me time with editing and getting the fictions out way quicker. I would say this will take me up until mid-to late July. It won't be a very long break; but it will also help me figure some things out.

Not only that, I got some good news to share! 1st, I got a new job! I've been job hunting for months and after so long I finally got work! Since I start in the near future, I will have to also juggle out how it goes with writing and other things. 2nd, I'm writing two books! It was an old dream of mine as a kid, but I'm actually writing two of my own original works! I'm hoping to get both manuscripts ready by the end of the summer for publishing!

Also, for a while I've been live streaming on a phone app called Unlocked. For those who don't know, Unlocked is created by David Vincent and Bryce Papenbrook and it's an app to connect fans with actors and other people. I stream in their community section for live art streams every single week, check me out as MangaGuitar96! Okay, enough of my life, let's show what you've all been waiting for!

* * *

 **Chapter 26: Epilogue**

The Fairy Tail managed to leave the Forbidden Sea unscathed and reached a port that was mainly controlled by the Order Of The King. The Phantom Lord's remaining crew was arrested by members of Jellal's company and taken off The Fairy Tail.

"Thank you for your help Captain Gajeel." Jellal smiled "Thanks to your help, The Phantom Lord won't be a problem anymore."

"Eh, he had it coming." Gajeel shrugged as he cleaned his ear out with his pinky. As the remaining members of The Phantom Lord's crew was taken off The Fairy Tail, Gajeel caught a glimpse of members of The Order of The King gawking at the ship with awe. It's not everyday you see a true pirate legend in front of you.

"So, what's going to happen to you?" Levy suddenly asked Jellal. The blue haired agent blinked at the loreist before giving her a smile.

"Well," he spoke in a low tone "I've been thinking about leaving The Order for quite sometime actually. The pay is good I must admit, but I personally am a man who likes to travel. I like the freedom and personally, I do have a strong sense of justice. A lot of the pirates we arrest aren't all bad, they were just trying to get by. I was actually also wondering if The Fairy Tail is looking for new recruits as well. I am quite good with a sword and I do know my way around a ship."

Gajeel, Levy and Lily exchanged glances before giving Jellal a smile.

"We'd be happy to have ye on board." smiled Lily.

"I know Erza will be too." Levy winked at Jellal, causing his face to turn tomato red.

"Captian Jellal!" a voice suddenly hollered "You're not going to believe this, but one of the pirates is offering to give the whereabouts of Pirate Lord Warrod's granddaughter!" the group looked to the man in shock.

"That's wonderful!" Jellal hollered "I'm on my way now!" he left the conversation to join his team on this.

"Captain," Lily suddenly spoke "do ye thin he deserves a cut?"

"Of the treasure?" Gajeel pondered "He did help us and is joining the crew, he deserves a cut I guess." Lily nodded in agreement.

* * *

Natsu was downstairs in the bowels of the Fairy Tail, looking over all of the cannons, cleaning them and reloading them. This may have been a self repairing ship, but even they needed to be cared for at times.

"Ahoy Natsu!" a voice called out. The Pyrotechnic expert looked up from his work space and found Lucy, making her way downstairs.

"Ahoy Lucy!" Natsu waved back before continuing his task.

"What're you doing?" she asked.

"Cleaning these tanks." he replied "They're filled with 100 years worth of cobwebs. I know it's a ship that can heal itself; but everything still needs to be maintained every now and then." a moment of silence passed before Lucy spoke up.

"Hey Natsu, do you have any idea what you plan to do with your share of the treasure?" he looked at her with a curious thought.

"Nah, might save it for something big one day. Ye?"

"No. I might save it as well."

"If all else fails, I could buy more explosives. I've been thinking about creating a combustion cannon ball. One that could set fire to a ship in a mere matter of seconds."

"I see. Um, Natsu?"

"Hnn?"

"Listen, now that The Fairy Tail is ours and everything, the crew is looking to plan a celebration at the Blue Pegasus Inn. I was kind of wondering if you'd like to be my date."

Natsu's face was blank the moment he heard those words pass Lucy's lips, he looked over her body and noticed she was looking away from him, her face as red as a tomato and then, a smile appeared on his face, he knew how she felt and he had to admit, he felt the same.

"Aye." he spoke "I'd like that. Hey, want to help me clean these cannons out? It would be a lot quicker with ye around." Lucy smiled at his request.

"I'd like that."

* * *

"Man, this ship is huge!" Gray hollered as he looked from the crow's nest, looking out to the sea "And this view is gorgeous!"

"Juvia heard it's the largest pirate ship to have ever existed." Juvia, who was next to Gray replied. They were on the crow's nest, exploring the ship and soon came to see the view the ship had to offer. There was a moment of silence between the two, it was a good silence because they wanted to take in the breathtaking view in front of them.

"A lot's changed since this crew started huh?" Gray asked Juvia. Juvia looked to him with a slight pink tint on her cheeks

"It has." she nodded "Yer an amazing sword fighter Gray-sama. Juvia always wanted to tell ye that."

"I remember seeing yer try out for the crew. Ye were incredible out there." Gray smiled "Juvia, any plans with what to do with your savings?"

"Juvia might invest." she confessed "So that way there's more money coming in."

"Sounds really wise." Gray smiled "I think I might start a brewing company on the side. Sell mead to pirates. I'll still be with the crew of course, but this will bring an extra savings in."

"That sounds wonderful!" Gray looked over to Juvia, his cheeks tinted pink and he cleared his throat for a moment.

"Uh, don't take it as anything; but would you like to go with me to the celebration at the Blue Pegasus Inn tonight?"

Juvia suddenly hugged Gray and gave him a kiss on the cheek for this.

"Juvia would love to go with Gray-sama!" she squealed.

"Woah easy there! We could fall off!" Gray warned yet laughed "Alright then! We're going to the party!"

* * *

The sun was starting to set on the small isle not too far from Caracole Isle and the sea washed across the white sandy beaches of the isle. Gajeel, Levy and Lily were standing on the beach, in front of Mavis and Zeref across from them. The wind blew gently on everyone's hair, also adding a salty sea scent thanks to the nearby ocean. Mavis was wearing a pure white sundress, her hair had a tropical flower in it and a pearl bracelet was on her wrist. Zeref wore a white shirt with a white set of pants and like his girlfriend, he was barefoot.

"Thank ye." Mavis spoke to the three "For everything. For saving us, for ending our suffering once and for all."

"It was nothing." Gajeel smirked "I've been through worse, trust me."

"Ye saved us." Zeref smiled "Thanks to ye and yer crew, Mavis and I can finally live the happy life we always dreamt of."

"If ye don't mind me asking," Lily asked "but what will ye do now? What about yer crews?"

"We disbanded our crews." Mavis explained "The Fairy Tail has a new crew now and Zeref's ship rotted long ago."

"But more importantly, this is a new world to us." Zeref added "Our loved ones are long gone, there are more pirate crews out there than there were in our time, and since there's nothing for us, it was best we disbanded our crews. Everyone will go on and make a living in their own way."

"And what about you two?" Levy asked them.

"We're retiring from the lives of pirates." Mavis smiled "Zeref and I wanted to after we fell in love. Now that we're free, we plan to build a home on this isle and start a life together. Even look to raise a family."

"Family eh?" Gajeel smirked before looking at Levy who was unaware.

"Gajeel," Mavis suddenly spoke "please take good care of the Fairy Tail for me. This ship holds a lot that is dear to me and is what I called home for years. She will only respond to ye now. And I ask ye to use yer new power wisely."

"Ye have me word." Gajeel promised.

"Are you planning to come to the celebration tonight?" Levy asked the couple.

"Nay." Zeref denied "Mavis and I want the chance to be alone, we haven't had that in a long time."

"We understand." Lily smiled.

"We wish ye well!" Mavis spoke "If ye ever need anything, please find us!"

"We will!" Levy smiled. They said their goodbyes to the couple and soon took the ship to Caracole isle.

* * *

The Blue Pegasus Inn was very lively that night. The Fairy Tail's newest crew partied like no tomorrow, having booze brought to them, their meals served and music playing through the night. Some of the Fairy Tail's crew walked around the inn in a drunken stupor, enjoying their night, singing horribly to the pirate shanties playing, it was a nice to remember.

Gajeel looked around the building and soon spotted Levy who was speaking with Jet and Droy. Something has been on his mind since their conversation with Mavis and Zeref and he wanted to finally say what he wanted to say. He made his way over to the lorist and smirked at her.

"Oi," he spoke to her "can I speak with-"

 _Ding ding ding!_

The room stopped their chatter and the music stopped playing when the sound of a glass clinking. Everyone in the room looked to find Bob, the owner of The Blue Pegasus Inn clinking the glass.

"Attention everyone!" he hollered "I am terribly sorry to interrupt; but Captain Gajeel, a messenger arrived and he had a letter for ye." Gajeel made his way over to the bar and took the letter that Bob had left there.

Gajeel opened the letter in front of everyone in the crew and began to silently read it to himself. As he read it, his eyes widened in shock and surprise, his jaw finally dropped at the end.

"H-holy shit." he spoke.

"What is it Gajeel?" Lily asked.

"It's from the Council of Pirates. They heard about what happened at the isle and because of me bravery, they're looking to nominate me for a Pirate Lord! They want to meet with me next week!"

The crowd cheered at Gajeel's large announcement and the celebration turned into an even bigger one. The night continued as more drinks and food was served until finally, everyone soon passed out.

* * *

Levy awoke amidst the passed out bodies and rubbed her eyes. She looked up at the clock and learned it was two in the morning, very late into the night.

"Hey, yer up." she heard a voice speak. Levy looked around the Inn to find Gajeel, leaning against the nearby wall looking towards her.

"Ahoy Gajeel." Levy spoke "What a night."

"Tell me about it. Can't believe it, not in my wildest dreams did I think I'd become captain of The Fairy Tail or nominated for Pirate Lord."

"Life works in weird ways." Levy pointed out, Gajeel chuckled at Levy's words "Hey, Gajeel, what did you want to say to me earlier?" the captain made his way over to the loreist and smirked.

"I decided what I want to do with the cut of my share." he admitted.

"Of the treasure? W-what do you plan to do?"

"Build a manor. Off an isle where no one can find it. It can be a place we can stay when we aren't on the sea."

"That does sound nice, I admit it can be tiresome being always on the- did you say "we"?"

"I did." Gajeel smirked "I want ye to come live with me in that manor. And when the day comes, we can get marri-" he was stopped short when Levy passionately kissed him. Gajeel was shocked at first before melting into the kiss.

"Absolutely." she replied after breaking from the kiss "Absolutely!"

"Oi easy! Yer gonna wake everyone up! Gihihi!" he pulled Levy closer again and kissed her with much passion. If you could ask Gajeel how he felt right now, he would tell you that he felt top of the world right now. And he knew somewhere out there, his father was smiling down on him.

The End


End file.
